


Cadence

by kracken



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Injury Recovery, Language, Lemon, M/M, Preventers (Gundam Wing), Rough Sex, Threesome - M/M/M, Yaoi, gritty-ness, not-so-easy-as-that-ness, talking about sex, where's Trowa?, which is waaay different than sex talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 18:30:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13840536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kracken/pseuds/kracken
Summary: Wu Fei is Duo Maxwell's partner. When they are both injured during a mission, and have to be taken care of by Heero Yuy, they discover things about each other that they never knew.





	1. Cool

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Dacia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [A Little Piece of Gundam Wing](https://fanlore.org/wiki/A_Little_Piece_Of_Gundam_Wing), which closed in 2017. With Kracken's permission, I began manually importing her works to the AO3 as part of an Open Doors-approved project after July 2017.

Duo Maxwell had a trickle of sweat running down the side of his face, but that was the only sign of his nervousness as he crouched over an explosive device in the middle of a firefight. As he attempted to disarm it, Wu Fei could only watch him, guarding him with two glocks held ready, while men on both sides turned the large warehouse into a bloodbath. The Preventers bought Maxwell time with their lives. Wu Fei was ready to do no less.  
  
"Time!" Duo barked, his bangs hanging in his eyes and his slim hands working on the spaghetti-like pile of wires in his lap.  
  
Wu Fei replied and Duo's jaw clenched as he finally attached a handheld device to the wires and turned it on. Numbers flickered in endless streams on a small readout as it tried to discover the deactivation codes by process of elimination. His fingers flew over the keypad as he worked along side the micro computer to try and find them himself.  
  
Bullets splattered the concrete all around them. Wu Fei flinched and turned to fire back. He felt a bullet thud into his side. He gasped, sat down hard, and then surged back to his knees to keep on firing. Preventer agents came charging to the rescue, but there weren't enough of them. Undetected scatter bombs had taken out many of their number early on in the fight. Reinforcements were yet to arrive.  
  
"Time!" Duo demanded again.  
  
Wu Fei fired off two more shots, checked his watch with blurry eyes, and gave it to him.  
  
Another bullet slammed into Wu Fei's shoulder. He dropped one glock and it skittered over the floor as his arm hung numbly and began seeping blood. He had been thrown onto his side this time. It was hard to sit back up, harder to lift his remaining gun, and almost impossible to see where to aim.  
  
"Got it!" Duo shouted in glee, but then snarled, "Secondary charge! Get the hell outta here!"  
  
A hand hooked under Wu Fei's arm and hauled him to his feet. Duo shouted at their men. Wu Fei felt himself pulled violently forward. The rest was disjointed. He couldn't trust which parts were real. An explosion rocked him and drove him to his knees. He felt many 'somethings' bury themselves into the skin of his back as his eardrums threatened to burst. Hands. Shouting. The smell of jet fuel. Heat as if from a fire. Darkness. Light. Darkness again. A single voice, Heero perhaps, saying, "It's bad."  
  
The world went away for awhile. Wu Fei dreamed. He was crouching by Duo again, guns held ready, watching that trickle of sweat track down Duo's face. Something told him that  they were going to stay like that forever; endless tension, endless fear, endless respect for a man who held a biological bomb in his lap, powerful enough to take out a nation, and dared to try and defeat it.  
  
Was he dead, Wu Fei wondered? Was death nothing but an endless frozen moment of his time of death? Wu Fei couldn't help being disappointed. He had hoped for peace, for contemplation, for rest. It was a fine and honorable moment to live in, dying as a warrior, but forever? It gave him far too much time to contemplate regrets and that was weak. He had never liked being weak.  
  
Duo's eyes were bright with adrenalin. Wu Fei studied them and then studied the curve of Duo's cheek, the one that made him still seem so young. That cheek led to his strong jaw and that wide smile, the one that was always dancing on his lips no matter what was going on. If he leaned closer, Wu Fei would smell grease, blood, sweat, and military khaki. Duo was all muscle. His shoulders were a little wide, surprisingly, considering how lean the rest of him was. Those long legs were drawn up as he crouched, as lean as the rest of him.  
  
It had amazed Wu Fei to see Duo practicing his martial arts one day, to see that those long legs and arms didn't hinder his speed and grace in the slightest. Duo was deadly, masculine, and, at twenty three, one of the best agents that Wu Fei had ever seen. Spending eternity watching him would not be the hardship, Wu Fei thought. It would be, instead, the thought that he had died with so much of his life not lived and so many choices not yet made. Shameful. He could hear his old teachers disgust. Weak. Dishonorable. If he was dead, he had died as a warrior, saving those who could not fight. He should not regret that.  
  
He drifted. Duo's image shimmered and then the dream spun away. That inspired a new regret, one that Wu Fei throttled and buried deep, refusing, even in death, to acknowledge it.  
  
"Fei?" Duo's voice, calling from the darkness, rough and strange.  
  
"Duo?" Heero's voice admonished, "Stop talking, idiot. The doctor said he'll have to operate if you don't shut up and let your throat heal. Breathing in 'acid dust' is usually fatal. You're lucky it just burned your throat.  Running back into the blast cloud to get wounded- "  
  
"Didn't get any," Duo's barely understandable voice managed. His despair was still evident.  
  
"If the evac hadn't come in with air tanks, you would be dead as well," Heero retorted.  
  
"Too late for them," Duo sighed.  
  
"Too late," Heero agreed and sounded sad as well. "You didn't fail, Duo. You disarmed the main weapon. The secondary bomb was to deter someone like you from deactivating it."  
  
Duo didn't reply.  
  
Wu Fei felt pain, grinding, throbbing, all encompassing pain. He mentally took his own status and decided that he was drugged, but then felt some trepidation as he wondered how badly he was hurt if there was pain reaching him even through the drugs. At least it told him that he was alive. Death could not possibly hurt that much.  
  
"Fei," Duo tried again.  
  
Wu Fei rallied all of his will and said, "Listen to Heero and shut up, Maxwell." He coughed in a throat as dry as a desert and wondered if he had managed to make himself  heard.  
  
A sigh sounded almost in his hear, clear relief. A strong hand squeezed his and  lips gave his forehead a rough kiss.  
  
That was... odd. Wu Fei tried to hold on to consciousness, desperate to open his eyes and see Duo's face, to know if he was just over come with emotion, if he was joking, if he was... but the drugs and his wounds pulled him back down into darkness.  
  
+  
  
"Stop!"  
  
"Mr. Yuy?"  
  
"He's waking up."   
  
"Dear lord! What are you pilots made of? That's Acronzone 5 I gave him. It's the strongest anesthetic we have."  
  
"Stand back. Don't be a fool."  
  
"Mr. Maxwell!"  
  
"Duo! Let him go! You're clear and safe! Let him go!"  
  
Wu Fei rolled his head to the right and saw blurred shapes moving erratically. Something sailed past his face so close it sparkled from an over head light and rustled the loose hair at his forehead. That something clattered and clanged into other things beyond him.  
  
"Duo!"  
  
Wu Fei concentrated, blinked furiously, and then foundered in confusion as he made out a man in a white coat and Heero Yuy wrestling with someone on a bed near his own. His mind considered capture and torture before it remembered that the war was over. Hospital, doctor, firefight, biobomb came his next thoughts, replaying rapidly like a slide show behind his eyes.  
  
"Fucking hurts!" the voice was strangled, a hoarse whisper that Wu Fei barely heard.  
  
Yuy explained, "Caused by friendlies, though, not enemy troops. You've had several skin grafts. Let the doctor look at them and stop fighting the drugs. I'm on guard."  
  
"Partner?" The strangled voice demanded.  
  
Heero looked over at Wu Fei, studied him for a moment, and then turned back to Duo. "Awake and aware," he reported."Now, stand down, agent."  
  
There was a pained sigh. "Hurts."  
  
"I know," Heero said and his voice was suddenly almost tender. "Let the drugs do their work."  
  
Hurts was exactly how Wu Fei felt. The bullets wounds were lumps of pain. His back was a rack of it, scattered in hundreds of pinpoints. Burns stung relentlessly. His eyes traveled up a plastic line to an IV. Drugs were being dripped into the line. It seemed that he was having his own trouble letting them work. He tried to sink into meditation and get beyond the pain. A face, suddenly close to his own, interrupted his attempt.  
  
Gold curls, blue sky eyes, and a gentle smile. Quatre Winner was the sun bursting through a bleary gloom. "Chang?"  
  
Wu Fei nodded, once. It was disconcerting how that simple motion made the world spin out of control. If there had been something in his stomach, he was sure that Quatre would now be wearing it  
  
"Just relax," Quatre warned. "The doctor will be with you in just a moment."  
  
"Good," Wu Fei managed. "Want out of here."  
  
Quatre looked stunned and then very disapproving. "Of course not, Chang," he admonished as if he were talking to a naughty child. "You are seriously injured. You're scheduled for two more operations. The doctor may prescribe another transfusion. You nearly died, you know." He gently patted Wu Fei's uninjured arm. "Let the drugs work and go back to sleep. Heero is here to keep Duo from injuring himself, or the staff, and I'm here to watch over you."  
  
"Maxwell?" Wu Fei demanded.  
  
Quatre's _expression went guarded. "He's recovering, just as you are."  
  
And he had almost died, Wu Fei thought anxiously. "Status?"  
  
Quatre brushed long strands of black hair from Wu Fei's eyes, with little flicks of his short fingers. "Recovering," he repeated and then, "Mission successful."  
  
Wu Fei's eyes closed, realizing that he wasn't going to get anything more and too exhausted and in pain to argue further about it."Keep the fool in his bed," he muttered as he fell off the edge of consciousness again. Quatre's chuckle was the last thing that he heard.  
  
There was a slight banging sound, almost rhythmic in its' repetition. Wu Fei swam out of a dream that had to do with fields, poppy flowers, and blood, though he couldn't remember any more details than that . He opened his eyes and squinted at glaring white light and an antiseptic white ceiling. Memory came in puzzling pieces. He put them together haltingly until he had a fourth of a picture and then turned his head. Duo Maxwell was sitting in his own bed, propped up on pillows, slowly and repeatedly banging the back of his head against the wall. It wasn't hard, barely any force at all, but it must have stung.  
  
"Maxwell," Wu Fei was embarrassed at the thin, hoarse sound of his voice. "Foolish to... to damage what... little brain matter you... possess."  
  
Duo started and stopped his self abuse. He searched Wu Fei's eyes excitedly. "You really awake this time, Fei?" His voice was rough and whispery. Wu Fei had to strain to hear it.  
  
Wu Fei gave himself a brief, self diagnostic, and then nodded, once. He felt sticky, unclean, and  full of a constant, throbbing pain. His hair was unwashed and it itched. He tried to lift a hand to it and was brought up short by the tug of IV lines in his arm.  
  
"Careful there," Duo admonished him. "You're a pin cushion, but you need every one of those."  
  
Wu Fei grunted.  
  
"I've got 'em too," Duo told him. "We both lost a lot of fluids and they keep telling me that any infection'll probably kill us way before any of our wounds, if we're not careful. So, we're getting our drinks in a tube and our antibiotics." He flushed a little. "We also have catheters, so try not to move too much down there either. Fluids in , fluids out. A few more days of that, they said, and then we can unhook from all of this." He stopped and put a hand to his throat as if it hurt him, frowning.   
  
Wu Fei felt the catheter and turned his face away in embarrassment. It was bad enough that he was that helpless, but to have Duo Maxwell witness it mortified him.  
  
"I'm dying of boredom," Duo complained, his voice almost nonexistent now. "At least talk to me, Fei."  
  
Memory surfaced and Wu Fei snapped as he turned to look at Duo again, "No talking, Maxwell. I heard... doctor's orders."  
  
Duo looked angry and then he said shortly, "Then you talk."  
  
"Only if you don't," Wu Fei shot back, but he needed water or he wouldn't be able to talk at all. Duo grabbed up a clipboard and used a pen to scrawl, ' Call nurse Yuy.' He pointed to the door.  
  
Wu Fei was perplexed, but he did as Duo asked, "Yuy?!"  
  
Heero came into the room at once, looking alert, one hand under his jacket and presumably on the butt of a gun holstered there. He looked first at Duo and Duo was already writing something else on his clipboard. He held it up. Heero read what he had written there and then turned to Wu Fei, startled.  
  
"You're awake." The relief in Heero's _expression confused Wu Fei. They had never gotten along during the war and their paths rarely crossed, even during missions. Wu Fei had even imagined some animosity towards him when he had been chosen to partner with Duo instead of Yuy. Certainly Heero had seem cold and grim whenever they had chanced to interact after that.  
  
Heero was pouring water into a cup with a straw. He gently adjusted the bed so that Wu Fei wasn't completely flat and then he held the cup while Wu Fei tentatively took small sips. He wasn't prepared for his body's instant rejection. He vomited forcefully and the world went black. When he came to again, hearing Duo shouting anxiously and Heero telling him to be quiet, he was also aware of someone checking his nose and mouth.  
  
"Just water?" A disapproving voice asked.  
  
"Yes," Heero replied. "I wasn't aware that he wasn't allowed any."  
  
"In the future, Mr. Yuy," the voice told him angrily. "You will consult with me before giving this patient anything. We are lucky that he didn't pull any of his micro sutures open or drown in fluids."  
  
A pause.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Maxwell," The voice sighed. "You may stop writing. I understand that you are the one who suggested Mr. Yuy give the patient water. Yes, he will be all right. He didn't drink enough to cause any problems. When he wakes, we will give him a very limited amount of water under supervision and in a more upright position."  
  
"Yes, Dr.," Heero replied.  
  
"Mr. Wu Fei," the doctor called. "Are you awake?" Wu Fei managed a nod. "Good. It's very important that we get you up off your back and moving as soon as possible, but I warn you against any attempts alone or in the company of your companions. We have trained therapists who will make certain that you don't injure yourself. Also, no food or drink that is not approved by me personally. Understood?" Wu Fei nodded again, hating how the room seemed to spin sickeningly even with his eyes closed.  
  
Wu Fei concentrated on bringing his senses back to order as Heero and the doctor talked. The doctor finally left and Heero said, the grimace apparent in his tone, "I'll need to change."  
  
Wu Fei wasn't sure what the situation was, but it seemed that Heero was reluctant to leave them alone even long enough to change his clothes in a more private place. He heard Duo whistle appreciative, Heero's irritated reply, and the rustle of cloth. Wu Fei turned his head and blinked his eyes open, not sure why it was suddenly so important to see exactly what Yuy was doing.  
  
Duo was still sitting up in bed, smirking and holding up his clipboard with a number ten scrawled on it. Heero cursed softly as he raised his arms above his head to slip into his shirt. Strong shoulders, a narrow waist, and arms that were beautifully defined. Wu Fei didn't have long to feel a rush of warmth before that handsome view was covered and Heero was tucking his white shirt into his black dress pants.  
  
"Nice," Duo said and Heero glared at him. Duo made a foolish 'locking' motion to his lips and laid back into his pillows, smiling.  
  
Heero retreated back to his guard post just outside the door as if Duo's teasing was too much for him. Duo looked over at Wu Fei. He rolled his eyes and wrote on his clipboard, 'Just like making him mad. He does it so well. Don't really mean anything by it.'  
  
Wu Fei rubbed at his raw throat, hating the taste of bile on his tongue. He barely was able to say, "Disrespectful." Meaning that Duo shouldn't tease someone who was guarding them and seeing to their needs. He heard Duo snort, but Wu Fei was already following that thought and not liking where it led. Heero, Quatre, and Duo had all been watching him, seeing him weak, helpless, and unable to rise above his injuries. It wasn't a realization that Wu Fei accepted with grace. It made him angry, ashamed, and determined to recover enough to leave that place.  
  
Duo tapped hard on his clipboard. When he had Wu Fei's attention, he wrote, 'Know what you're thinking, asshole! I'm stuck here and having to put up with this crap! You're staying here , too, so don't think otherwise, got it?'  
  
Wu Fei scowled.  
  
"I'll tell," Duo mouthed angrily.  
  
Meaning drugs and straps would be used to keep Wu Fei in his bed. He was furious now. He tried to sit up, to make a lie out of what Duo was saying, what he was asking. His body refused to respond in the slightest, though. Wu Fei's face flamed in shame.  
  
Duo tapped his clipboard again, but Wu Fei refused to look. He was weak. They all knew it. His body had betrayed him. All of his training refused to aid him. He was confined to his bed for the duration. He couldn't bear Duo's insults and his sarcastic remarks on top of that pain.  
  
The clipboard came sailing over the space between them and it landed hard on Wu Fei's ribs. He hissed in pain as he picked it up, unable to keep from reading, 'I care a lot about you, Fei, I know you're strong enough to get through this. There's nobody stronger than you.'  
  
Strong enough to get through this. It repeated a few times in Wu Fei's mind as he let it sink in that this was another type of challenge and that Maxwell was right. It would take strength to over come the severity of his wounds. A weak man... a weak man would have died before now, he was sure.  
  
Wu Fei felt a wave of gratitude, but he was too reserved to show it. He clutched the clipboard tightly in his hands and then did his best to nod well enough so that Duo knew that it was a bow. He wasn't sure that Duo understood such respect or gratitude, but he did see Duo smile back at him.


	2. Harps

"No!"  
  
"Sir..."  
  
"Hell, no!"  
  
"Mr. Maxwell, why must we go through this every time?"  
  
Wu Fei swam out of a drug haze and saw that a doctor and two nurses were hovering over Duo's bed. Duo had his bandaged arms raised as if to fend them off, face full of fury. Heero stood at his elbow, whether to save the doctor and his staff, or to make sure that Duo wasn't harmed, Wu Fei wasn't sure. His _expression was fierce and determined, as if he were on a mission.  
  
"Mr. Maxwell," the doctor tried again. "Your dressing needs to be changed. The bandages have to be taken off. The skin grafts have to be checked and tended. I know that it is a very painful process, but if we don't do these things, infection will set in at the worst and you will end up badly scarred at the least."  
  
"No!" Duo shouted back.  
  
"Mr. Yuy?" The doctor pleaded.  
  
"Drug him," Heero said with a heavy sigh.  
  
Wu Fei was shocked to see a nurse inject a syringe into Duo's IV.  
  
"Bastard!" Duo swore as he tried to fight his way out of the bed. Heero held him down easily. "I never gave you permission to make decisions for me!"  
  
"You did," Heero replied, as calm and as steady as a rock. "The paperwork is on file."  
  
Duo glared, but the drugs were taking effect and it lacked force. "Liar! You... forged... my... signat-" He was unconscious then and Heero gently settled him back onto his pillows. Wu Fei saw him carefully move Duo's braid out of harm's way as the doctor and the nurses peeled back the blanket and began to strip Duo of his bandages.  
  
They stuck to the wounds. It looked painful. Wu Fei watched them carefully work the bandages off. The sight of Duo's wounds; his burns, his grafts, the stitched lacerations, and the treatment that Duo was subjected to, made his reluctance suddenly more understandable.  
  
Heero looked over and saw that Wu Fei was awake. He moved around the working doctor and nurses, and approached him, though his body was poised and alert, ready to dash back if he was needed.  
  
Wu Fei nodded at Duo. "Is he all right?"  
  
"As well as can be expected," Heero replied, which wasn't reassuring.  
  
"You shouldn't drug him against his will, Yuy," Wu Fei growled and weakly used the remote by his hand to raise the bed. Sitting slightly upright now, he checked his drain tube, his catheter, and IV before skewering Heero with another dark look. "If he wishes to-"  
  
"He doesn't wish to," Heero retorted, "but he must. Just as you do."  
  
"I am my own man," Wu Fei protested hotly. "I didn't sign any form to allow you to make medical decisions for me."  
  
Heero smirked. "But you did."  
  
Wu Fei was indignant. "I did not."  
  
Heero shrugged slightly and then half turned to watch the doctors work.  
  
"I will make sure that you are charged with forgery and falsifying documents," Wu Fei warned. "If that's what you want to do," Heero replied indifferently and began to walk back to Duo.  
  
"Chang," Quatre's voice` admonished softly.  
  
Wu Fei started and turned his head. Quatre was leaning against that side of the bed, looking at him sadly. "Don't be angry with him. He's worried about both of you. He's doing what's best."  
  
"Why?" Wu Fei demanded angrily. "I am not weak. Let him care for Maxwell."  
  
"He knows what you need," Quatre insisted. "He won't shame you or be ashamed by you, Chang Wu Fei. He understands honor and keeping face."  
  
Quatre smiled. The world lost focus for what seemed like a moment and then Heero was bending in Wu Fei's line of sight and saying with a worried frown, "The doctor wants to check your wounds next, Wu Fei, and take out your catheter. I'm going to be by Duo's bed, but I will still be on guard."  
  
Just as Quatre had said, Heero was being careful not to witness Wu Fei's shame, the indignity of his catheter being removed.  
  
"Quatre," Wu Fei frowned. "Go with him."  
  
He turned his head and saw nothing. Heero's voice said worriedly, "Quatre's not here, Wu Fei."  
  
Wu Fei had a moment of severe disorientation. The doctor and the nurses were preparing themselves. He couldn't be this off balance and endure it. "Heero?" Wu Fei said quickly, trying not to let his desperation sound in his voice. "Was Quatre here... earlier?"  
  
"Yes," Heero replied. "He had to go. If he had known that the doctor would decide to do this, though, he wouldn't have left."  
  
Relief. It felt acute. It was good to know that he wasn't hallucinating. "Thank you," Wu Fei told him and turned his face away, a seeming dismissal, but, in actuality, a plea. Heero mercifully understood and moved away, turning his back.  
  
The doctor approached cautiously and checked to make certain that Wu Fei was alert. "I am going to remove your catheter and check your drainage. If everything looks good, the therapist will be visiting next. It's very important that you begin to walk. It will be painful, but the longer that you remain in this bed, the greater the chance that complications will develop."  
  
Wu Fei gave a stiff nod of acknowledgment, keeping his eyes averted. He tried to center himself, tried to pretend that he was elsewhere, as his humiliation began. The nurses were quick and competent. They cleaned him after, checked his IVs, and checked his bedding, as the doctor peeled back wound dressings and removed something that stung from the worst of the wounds.  
  
"Good." The doctor sounded very impressed. "Your healing abilities are phenomenal. With any other patient, I would have been preparing next of kin and filling out a death certificate. I've heard rumors that Gundam pilots are physically superior, but to see it firsthand.... I'll get an award for the paper I submit on this."  
  
"How long?" Wu Fei bit out. "How long until I may leave this place?"  
  
The doctor frowned as he replaced the dressings and motioned the nurses to clean up that area as well. "With therapy and further improvement... several weeks."  
  
Wu Fei cut that estimate in half and was still frustrated. "Maxwell? How long..."  
  
The doctor's frown deepened. "He's still listed in critical, Mr. Wu Fei."  
  
"What?" Wu Fei turned his head sharply to look at the doctor in shock. "I thought..." He remembered Duo sitting up, exchanging barbs with him, looking completely healthy. The fool. He was a master at subterfuge.   
  
"You will force him to stay and heal," Wu Fei told the doctor, the threat heavy in his voice. "He will try to trick you. He pretends... very well. He will convince you that he is well enough to leave."  
  
The doctor looked unhappy. "I won't release Mr. Maxwell until my observations of his medical condition warrant it, but the law says that I can't keep him against his will. You, and his friends, will have to convince him not to leave before it's wise."  
  
"I will not 'convince'," Wu Fei snapped and hated how the weakness and drugs made that statement impotent. "He will stay."  
  
The nurse began to inject his IV with a pain killer. Wu Fei reached out and closed his hand hard on her wrist. She squeaked in alarm.  
  
"You will not give me any more drugs," Wu Fei told her as he released her.  
  
The doctor was anxious. "Mr. Wu Fei, the pain-"  
  
"Is my own concern," Wu Fei told him firmly.  
  
"All right," the doctor sighed, "but, when the pain hits, and you change your mind, call the nurse."  
  
Wu Fei looked irritated and said nothing to that.  
  
The doctor and the nurses left the room with their equipment. The silence felt strange. Wu Fei looked over at Heero, who was standing by Duo and looking down at him intently. His concern for Duo was almost an aura around him. Wu Fei wasn't sure about Duo's feeling for anyone. It surprised Wu Fei that it was Heero, and not the one time pilot of Deathscythe, who was wearing his emotions for anyone to see.  
  
"Critical," Wu Fei said, a stone in a still pool. Heero nodded without turning.  
  
"He's my partner," Wu Fei stated and wondered why he did. It sounded almost as if he were staking some claim.   
  
Heero's shoulders stiffened. He replied, "I know, but he told me not to tell you. He didn't want you to be upset."  
  
He was upset, Wu Fei thought. He wanted to be by Duo's bedside, not stuck in his own.  
  
"My fault," Wu Fei grated, surprising them both.  
  
Heero turned, looking puzzled. "What?"  
  
"I failed to protect him during the mission," Wu Fei explained, feeling the shame twist in his gut. "It was my duty and I failed."  
  
Heero snorted.  
  
Wu Fei glared at him.  
  
"If you can tell me how you could have brought both of you out of that firefight without being wounded, I would like to hear it," Heero asked."I am not immune to bombs and bullets. Are you?"  
  
Wu Fei continued to glare, but then he suddenly found his blanket, twisted in his clenched hands, the most fascinating thing in the room.  
  
"Duo would say, 'The truth is painful. Get over it'," Heero told him. "I think that's good advice."  
  
Guilt wouldn't let go so easily, though, especially when Wu Fei's partner was breathing the same air as death only a few feet away.  
  
The therapist came, a no nonsense young man who helped Wu Fei sit up further than he had in long days, and held him steady until the dizziness passed. When Wu Fei felt better, the man asked briskly, as if he expected a long argument, "Ready to put your feet on the floor and try a few steps?" He positioned a chair exactly three steps away. "Just there. I'll help you every step of the way."  
  
Wu Fei's nostrils flared in annoyance and then he demanded, "I will walk to Maxwell's bed."  
  
The therapist blinked and then measured the distance with his eyes. "I don't think you realize how weak you are, Mr. Wu Fei."  
  
Heero was suddenly at Wu Fei's bedside. He said to the therapist, as if he were angry on Wu Fei's behalf, "You don't realize how strong he is."  
  
The therapist looked skeptical. "You can give me a hand, Mr.Yuy, when he starts to fall flat on his face," he told him acidly.  
  
Heero nodded and he stood ready.  
  
Wu Fei trembled and sweated with pain as the therapist levered him off the bed. He made it four steps, before he fell. Heero was there, though, even before the therapist could react, and, as Wu Fei's senses spun, he felt himself moving forward again.  
  
A soft surface pressed against him. He realized that he was leaning against a bed, strong hands still holding him. He fought to clear his head, fought to straighten. He used every ounce of will to accomplish it and then found himself looking into Duo Maxwell's very pale face. Those purple eyes opened blearily at all the noise and movement. They focused with difficulty on Wu Fei.  
  
"Moron," Duo groused hoarsely and then he was drifting off into the drugs again.  
  
"Was it worth the effort to hear that?" Heero asked with some humor.  
  
"Yes," Wu Fei growled back. He studied Duo's face, willed his partner's fierce spirit to remain, and then gave up. Heero lifted him easily, keeping his IV lines clear, and the therapist helped him maneuver IV stand and Preventer agent back into his bed.  
  
Wu Fei closed his eyes and waited for his heart to stop beating wildly. He heard the therapist say to Heero, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that they were... uhm... lovers?"  
  
Wu Fei went hot at the man's presumption. "Are you done with your duty?" he demanded.  
  
"Yes, sir," the man replied.  
  
"Then go."  
  
The man exchanged looks with Heero and then said to Wu Fei, "I'll be back in the morning. If you feel an increase in pain, don't hesitate to call the nurse."  
  
Wu Fei reminded himself that the man was only doing his job and that he didn't realize how much he was insulting him. When the therapist was gone, Wu Fei rubbed at his eyes wearily.  
  
"You should sleep some more," Heero suggested.  
  
The bed tilted downward and the blankets were pulled up under Wu Fei's chin. Would embarrassment never end?  
  
"Duo was right when he called you 'Nurse Yuy'," Wu Fei grumbled, trying to regain some face.  
  
Heero didn't reply but his hands stopped their fussing motions.  
  
"Lovers..." Wu Fei complained as he began to drift off into sleep. "The man is foolish and insane." He struggled awake enough to add, "Any change in Duo... wake me... at once... promise."  
  
A hand smoothed dark hair from his face. Wu Fei felt the light brush of fingers. He remembered Quatre doing the same thing only Heero's hand trailed along his cheek in a manner that was more intimate.  
  
"I promise," Heero said and then Wu Fei let go of consciousness.


	3. Pillow Talk

"I can't eat this," Wu Fei groused as he pushed his food tray aside.  
  
Duo made a motion of disgust at his own tray and pushed it aside as well. He lay back into his pillows and stared at the ceiling.  
  
Wu Fei watched him silently for some moments and then asked carefully. "Is your throat bothering you?"  
  
Duo shrugged dispiritedly.  
  
"You should eat," Wu Fei said and then grabbed a remote and jabbed buttons until he managed to find a news station on the overhead vidscreen. "You've lost far too much weight."  
  
After a moment, the sound of knuckles on plastic made Wu Fei look at Duo again. Duo was still staring at the ceiling, but he was holding up a clipboard that read, 'When food shows up, I'll eat it.'  
  
Duo wasn't on Wu Fei's soft food diet. His actually looked like a meal. A small bite had been taken out of what was trying to pass as mashed potatoes and that was all. "If you aren't careful," Wu Fei warned, "Heero will make them give you food through an IV."  
  
Duo glared at him.  
  
"You know he will," Wu Fei insisted. "He convinced the doctors that we are too incapacitated to make our own medical decisions and he forged our signatures to give him the legal right to make them for us."  
  
Duo scribbled and held up the clipboard. 'Prosecute later.'  
  
Wu Fei agreed.  
  
Duo reluctantly picked up a fork and poked at his meal. He brought a mouthful up and ate it with a grimace. His throat was hurting him, Wu Fei decided, and it wasn't just the unpleasantness of the meal.  
  
"If you would only stop speaking, the medication the doctor gives you would heal your throat much faster," Wu Fei pointed out. Duo didn't bother responding as he forced down another mouthful.  
  
Duo suddenly went very pale and he clutched at his stomach. He shoved the tray aside, bent over the side of the bed, and began throwing up violently. After only a moment of that, he began choking. His hands flailed around him for the emergency call button.  
  
Wu Fei had only walked twice, both times with help from Heero and the therapist. Adrenalin alone had him out of bed and across the space between their beds as he shouted for Heero. He grabbed Duo, pulled him close, and forced him down as Heero burst through the door and joined him.  
  
Heero's fingers went into Duo's mouth as Duo's eyes went wide and his face went blue. Feeling nothing he could reach, Heero elbowed Wu Fei aside, turned Duo, and did a heimlich even as several nurses rushed into the room. Nothing happened. It was Heero's turn to be shoved aside by a male nurse, who was suctioning Duo's throat in the next moment as two female nurses pinned Duo in place.  
  
Duo sucked in air audibly and then kept gasping like landed fish as the male nurse let out a sound of relief and ordered, "Call the doctor."  
  
Heero helped Duo lay back, but then he was clutching at Wu Fei as Wu Fei began to fall. Emergency over, adrenalin rushed out like a wave and Wu Fei was left with nothing left over. His senses reeled and his body screamed pain. People rushed about. Voices shouted. The world upended and then blessed softness hit his back as he was put in bed. He kept his eyes closed, letting his mind and body calm down and regain control.  
  
"I have never had so much trouble from two patients!" Wu Fei heard the doctor exclaim as the man rushed into the room. "Are they trying to die? Mr. Maxwell? Can you hear me? Your insistence on speaking, against all of my clear orders, has caused your throat to swell. That swelling caused you to choke on your food just now. I'm afraid that it's now necessary for me to do an exploratory. Nurse Kirkpatrick? Please prepare the patient. Mr. Maxwell? I assure you this is necessary. While purging your system of toxic poison has been our main focus, as well as the burns, the damage to your esophagus is not a small matter either. If you persist in ignoring my orders, you may be spending the rest of your life breathing and eating through a plastic tube. Do I make myself clear? I thought so."  
  
Wu Fei felt a chill as fear prickled at him. When Duo had finally been taken off the critical list, he had known acute relief and happiness, to hear that Duo was that close to returning to that list rubbed his face in just how easily he could lose Duo. The body in that other bed, always so strong, so confident, and seeming so damned invulnerable, could be snuffed out of existence as easily as any candle flame.  
  
Hands checked Wu Fei's wounds. He kept still, refusing to look and suffer the indignity of actually knowing who was touching him. He was surprised to hear Heero say, "He didn't pull any of his wounds open, Doctor."  
  
"Good," The doctor said from Duo's bedside. Footsteps, and then the doctor's voice asked, very close to Wu Fei's face, "Are you all right, Mr. Wu Fei?"  
  
Wu Fei nodded.  
  
"You shouldn't be," the doctor told him angrily. "While I commend your actions in trying to help your partner, may I remind you that Mr, Yuy, and an entire staff of nurses, were close by. Attempting to help Mr. Maxwell yourself, could have done irreparable harm to him as well as to yourself."  
  
Wu Fei felt the cold touch on his chest while the doctor checked his vitals and then it was gone and footsteps retreated back to Duo's bedside.  
  
"Ready?" The Doctor asked. When he was give an affirmative he said, "Try to relax, Mr. Maxwell. I'll try to make this brief."  
  
Wu Fei winced at the strangled, whimper, something that should never have come from Duo Maxwell. He pretended that he hadn't heard it, not wanting to shame Duo by acknowledging it. He opened his eyes and saw Heero by his bedside, face pale as he watched the backs of the people working on Duo.  
  
"Yuy," Wu Fei managed around his pain. Heero looked down at him and those dark blue eyes were trying to control a deep anguish."Thank you." Heero frowned, not understanding. "Thank you for coming..."  
  
Heero frowned even more. He reached out and his hand hovered as if he wanted to touch Wu Fei, but then he lowered it again and said with a frustrated growl, "I should have been in here, not... not out there."  
  
"We are not children," Wu Fei retorted softly. He studied this man, who had seemed so indifferent during the time they had known each other, but was now acting as if it were his sole duty to be their protectors. Of course, they had never come so close to dying before, had never touched the fragile barrier between this world and the next and felt that icy hand of death so keenly. During the war, there had been close calls, but youth gave a person a false feeling of immortality. Now that they were older, that veil had not only been lifted, but destroyed completely. Perhaps that was why Wu Fei's heart was still hammering in fear for Duo and why Heero was clutching at his blankets as if he needed it as an anchor to prevent himself from running to Duo's side. They both knew how easily Duo could breathe his last.  
  
"Done, Mr. Maxwell," the doctor said at last. "There is swelling and a small rupture. I cannot impress on you enough that you need to stay silent. I will need to place you on a soft food diet until the rupture heals. A course of intravenous fluid will be administered as well. Let this be a warning, Mr. Maxwell. I don't think your injuries can take any more abuse."  
  
"What's going on?" Quatre's voice came from the doorway and the man was there, looking anxious.  
  
Heero moved to Duo's side as the nurses and the doctor gathered their things and left. A janitor began cleaning up the vomit. Quatre joined Heero as the man explained what had happened.  
  
Quatre swore softly. "Idiots! I've never known two such infuriating men!" His voice softened in the next moment as he said, "Oh, Duo.... It must have hurt... It will be all right. I'll get you some tissue. No, no one can see you, just us. Don't worry. We understand."  
  
Wu Fei found himself pressing his hands to his ears as he heard it. No, it couldn't be! Not Duo! He refused to hear it. Refused to believe it. Shinigami didn't cry.  
  
Things quieted down after awhile. Duo slept. Wu Fei sat in a deepening depression. Heero paced. Quatre tidied up the room, needing something to do.  
  
"Go home," Wu Fei said suddenly, firm and determined.  
  
Heero glared at him. Quatre looked uncomfortable as he came to his bedside. "Chang? Are you awake?"  
  
"Very much so," Wu Fei told him. "I want you both to leave."  
  
"Why?" Heero looked pained as he stopped pacing and stared at him.  
  
"Because we are both shamed by having our weaknesses witnessed by our comrades," Wu Fei's jaw worked and then he continued, "No one should have witnessed..." he motioned towards Duo. "The drugs and his injuries... no one should have witnessed that."  
  
Quatre understood. Wu Fei could see it, could hear it in the careful way that he replied, "We understand that Duo isn't in complete control because of the drugs he was given. We aren't judging him, Chang, or you.."   
  
That burned like fire, to be included, to know that Quatre was aware of Wu Fei's shame and embarrassment.  
  
"I'm not going," Heero stated and turned away to regard Duo's sleeping form.  
  
"These people are not equipped to deal with soldiers, Chang," Quatre argued softly. "For their safety, and yours, we should stay. I'm sorry that it upsets you."  
  
Wu Fei felt as if he might explode. His hands opened and closed harshly on his blanket and then he bit out, "Then you'll both stay outside our room until you are needed. At least give us-"  
  
"No," Heero protested. "Someone has to make sure that something doesn't happen to you. Duo choked. He could have died."  
  
"Life is full of danger, Yuy!" Wu Fei snarled back. "We are not children. We are men. You will stand outside or..." There was no 'or' Wu Fei knew. He didn't have any way to back up his threat.  
  
Heero began to argue again, but Quatre turned and touched his arm. They whispered together. Wu Fei saw Heero's back stiffen, the tension in his shoulders telling him how much Heero didn't like what Quatre was saying. Those strong shoulders slumped in the next moment, and Heero was leaving, pushing a hand hard into the door and walking out.   
  
Quatre turned back to Wu Fei. "He's worried. So am I. I think you're right, though. Duo wasn't happy that we saw... It's difficult enough to convince him to stay here and heal. We can't make it impossible for him."  
  
Maybe he had seen the look on Wu Fei's face, or maybe he had felt Wu Fei's shame with the acute empathy he seemed to posses. Whatever the reason, Quatre hadn't included Wu Fei again and for that, Wu Fei could grant him a thankful nod without too much temper.  
  
It was, perhaps, a decision he sorely regretted when he next woke to find Duo halfway out of the hospital room window.  
  
"Maxwell!" Wu Fei shouted.  
  
Duo froze and then looked back over his shoulder. He was wearing a pair of shorts at least and not an open backed gown, but it was still raining outside and dark as pitch. A chill win whipped water droplets all over Duo and into the room. He was bandaged at a dozen points and holding himself as if he were in great pain, but the fierce determination on his face was almost demonic.  
  
Wu Fei struggled out of bed, ignoring his own pain, and hobbled over to Duo with his hands pressed against his wounds to brace them. "If you go, you will have to take me," Wu Fei told him angrily.  
  
Duo wiped at the water on his face with a shaking hand, scowling. The IV marks on his arms were darkly bruised and bleeding slightly. "Stay," he told Wu Fei hoarsely.  
  
"No," Wu Fei replied. He leaned against the wall as he looked out of the window. Parking lot lights showed that they were only on the second floor and that a tree could assist them down, if they hadn't both been weak and wounded. "I refuse to be left here to suffer these fools alone."  
  
Duo growled, rubbed at his throat, and then slumped against the wall. He looked dejected, lost, and at the end of his strength emotionally. Wu Fei determined, then and there, that he would never let Duo know that he had seen him cry.  
  
"How do you intend to get home?" Wu Fei wondered.  
  
Duo pulled keys from his pocket. He mouthed, 'Yuy'. He had picked Heero's pocket.  
  
"Smooth," Wu Fei grunted appreciatively. "And your status is such that you can survive this escape attempt?"  
  
Duo pointed to his chart. Wu Fei leaned and read it. Aside from fluids and pain killers, Duo was simply getting his skin grafts checked and dressings changed. Wu Fei himself was being encouraged to move about more and more. Climbing down trees, however, was not something he was ready for.   
  
"Rather than try for the dramatic," Wu Fei complained. "Why don't we try the easier way first?"  
  
Duo raised an eyebrow and then made a motion from the war, a hand sign that said, 'mission yours'. It warmed Wu Fei. Duo was usually the leader, but Wu Fei was the solid presence of reason that Duo turned to when he needed advice or simply someone to tell him that he was wrong. The actions Wu Fei were about to take, were not reasonable at all.  
  
"Wait here," Wu Fei told Duo as he hobbled to the door. Yuy and Winner were standing outside, Quatre sipping tea from a Styrofoam cup and Heero eating a protein bar.  
  
"Chang!" Quatre said anxiously when Wu Fei opened the door. "Is everything all right?"  
  
Heero started past him, but Wu Fei stopped him, using what little charm he possessed to touch Heero's arm reassuringly as he asked, "Forgive me, but Duo and I are hungry. Is it possible to get something from the commissary this late?"  
  
"Of course, I'll get you both something," Quatre offered. "What would you like?"  
  
"Rice with pork," Wu Fei told him. "A salad, if possible.... and tea. Maxwell would like a hamburger with fries, but he still needs soft food... soup, maybe, a soft desert, soft bread that he doesn't have to chew too much, and a drink. I don't think that you can carry that all by yourself, Quatre."  
  
Quatre had raised eyebrows. "I don't think so either."  
  
"Duo can't eat all of that," Heero said skeptically. "He's barely managing-"  
  
"He hates the regular hospital meals," Wu Fei told him, warming to the deception for Duo's sake. "I think he will eat more if he's given food from a regular menu."  
  
"You're probably right," Quatre agreed. "Come with me, Heero. You can help carry the food."  
  
Heero frowned. "I think someone should stay-"  
  
"I'm awake and alert," Wu Fei told him and then angrily looked down his nose at Heero. "I am more than capable of watching Duo sit in a hospital bed."  
  
Heero was still reluctant, but Quatre was growing exasperated. "Even wounded, Wu Fei is a match for any man, Heero. I think they will both be all right for a few minutes."  
  
Heero finally agreed to go, but from the long strides he was taking, Wu Fei estimated that they wouldn't be gone long. He returned to Duo and then wondered how a man in a hospital gown, and a man naked to the waist and in shorts, was going to escape a hospital.  
  
Duo didn't hesitate when Wu Fei gave the all clear signal. He put an arm around Wu Fei and went into the hall with him as if he were helping him with a therapy walk. That plan would only go so far, but Duo had somehow been paying more attention than Wu Fei to the hospital layout when they had come in. They pilfered some lockers and were in mismatched clothing, that didn't fit, before too long, but Wu Fei's inner clock was telling him that Heero and Quatre had been given ample time to find out their deception. He wasn't surprised that it was Heero who found them at the entrance to a supply bay not five minutes later.  
  
"We're going," Duo said hoarsely, but he was leaning heavily against a wall. Wu Fei sat down on the floor without Duo's support, but he was keeping his composure, looking as if he were about to meditate.  
  
Heero stared at them both, jaw working. Wu Fei was ready for a shameful call, for nurses to come at a run, and the inevitable trip back to their beds. Instead, Heero said, "I will go get my car, Give me my keys, Duo."  
  
Duo's mouth was hanging open. He looked suspicious. There was something about Heero, though, that was different. Nurse Yuy was gone. This was someone they knew, someone they had been missing. This was Heero Yuy, soldier, and he could understand them perfectly. Duo slowly handed over the car keys. Heero closed his hand on them, gave them both a stern look that said better than words to stay until he returned, and then he was slipping out of the building and into the parking lot.


	4. Blanket Tales

"He went right to sleep," Sally said in low tones as she slipped out of Duo's bedroom. She tucked her stethoscope and monitor pad into the pocket of her white coat and sighed. "You realize, Yuy, that's this is insane... yet typical for you lot, I've found."  
  
Heero smiled slightly as he finished settling Wu Fei on a futon in the living room. "They would have killed themselves trying to escape. It was the only solution," he reasoned.  
  
"So, instead of being in a hospital," Sally complained as she helped Heero, "and surrounded by doctors, nurses, and the best in medical equipment, they will be convalescing here, miles from emergency help. They will be attended by a man who is an expert at killing people, not healing them, and a Preventer field doctor, who will be on twenty four hour speed dial and visiting once a day."  
  
"Yes," Heero answered shortly.  
  
Wu Fei hissed in pain.  
  
Sally scowled. "Don't even try to complain, Chang."  
  
Wu Fei glared at her. "I didn't intend to, woman I am where I wish to be and well aware of the consequences of my decision."  
  
Sally grunted sourly as she straightened. She handed Heero several prescriptions. "Make sure that Maxwell keeps taking his antibiotics. Massage that cream into his grafts three times a day. That will go a long way in reducing the scarring. As for Wu Fei, he is not, I repeat, not to do anything physical. Any stress on those wounds could cause complications. Do not hesitate to call me if you have questions or you need my help."  
  
Heero nodded. Sally made an exasperated sound.  
  
"Heero, this isn't the war," Sally admonished him as she gathered up her medical case. "You don't have to try and do this alone."  
  
"I'm not," Heero assured her. "Trowa and Quatre are standing by."  
  
"You almost put that man in the trauma unit, you realize?" Sally told him. "Quatre was frantic. You could have told him."  
  
"He would have stopped us," Wu Fei snapped. "Now, enough. Go, with our gratitude."  
  
Sally grunted as she headed for the door. "A thank you is not delivered with the same tone as a curse, Chang Wu Fei."  
  
"Today, it is," Wu Fei grumbled and wasn't surprised when the door slammed shut. "She will try to mother us and then she will think better of her decision to release us from the hospital," he told Heero. "It's better to stop her before she starts."  
  
Heero didn't look happy. "This won't work unless she helps us. Don't make her our enemy."  
  
Wu Fei tried to ease his wound and managed it with a sigh. He was truly relieved to be free of the hospital. He should have been more gracious to the woman who had helped accomplish that. He unbent from his temper enough to say, "I will make amends when I see her next. I am... tired."  
  
"Sleep," Heero told him, and turned down a light. "I'll be on watch."  
  
"It's an apartment, Heero," Wu Fei slurred as sleep began to drag him under. "Lock the door and go to bed."  
  
It only occurred to Wu Fei, as he heard the front door lock and Heero's footsteps move across the apartment to Duo's door. That there was only one place for Heero to sleep, unless he intended to use a chair.  
  
Heero opened the door, but didn't close it again. Wu Fei heard Duo mutter something incoherent, utter a small, weak chuckle, and then go silent. Duo had a king size bed. Wu Fei had objected strenuously at the suggestion that he share it, but now... he almost wished that he hadn't. The thought disturbed him. He tried to understand it, but he couldn't stay awake long enough. He only knew, that he was jealous of Heero.  
  
+  
  
Real food cooking woke Wu Fei the next morning. Heero was seated at the kitchen bar, perched on a stool and reading a newspaper, and Sally Po was moving about the kitchen with expert ease.  
  
"Almost done," Sally said as she spooned scrambled eggs from a skillet onto a plate. Heero moved his paper as she placed the plate near his elbow.  
  
It felt odd, such a domestic scene. Wu Fei almost expected it to dissipate and become the sterile hospital, but it didn't and Sally soon looked over at him and saw that he was awake. She smiled, wiped her hands on a dish towel, and then came out of the kitchen to check on him.  
  
"Sleep well?" She asked as she took his pulse.  
  
Wu Fei nodded. "This futon is more than I'm used to in my own apartment."  
  
"Let me guess," Sally joked as she checked his temperature and then peeled back his blankets to check his bandages. "Pallet on the floor, a few cushions, swords in a stand, and a few mementoes of your ancestors?"  
  
She had described his apartment perfectly. "A man doesn't need more than that," Wu Fei grumbled and pulled his blankets back up.  
  
Sally snorted as she motioned to Duo's cluttered apartment. "Duo seems to have a different opinion." She threw over her shoulder, "What does your apartment look like, Heero?"  
  
Heero shrugged without looking up from his paper. "Bed, couch, gun case, computer room."  
  
"Room?" Sally echoed and raised an amused eyebrow. She smiled and said, "I have a teak frame bed, woven carpets, plants, a cat named Gi Gi, and an antique furniture set my grandmother left me."  
  
"Woman," Wu Fei snorted.  
  
Sally pursed her lips and then finished, " And a gun case full of my prize rifles and pistols."  
  
Wu Fei was surprised into a smile and she pointed at it triumphantly before he schooled his _expression to something sterner.   
  
"There! My treat for the day. A Chang smile," Sally chuckled as she straightened and walked back into the kitchen. She returned a moment later with a hot grain cereal and a plate of the eggs. "You're coming off the medication still, and you may experience some nausea and loss of appetite. This should be easy on your stomach." She put the food on the low coffee table. Still bent over and very close, she whispered, "If you need more medication, I can give it to you without the others knowing about it."  
  
"Did Duo accept your offer?" Wu Fei wondered in the same whisper.  
  
Sally frowned and then, after a long pause, she admitted, "No."  
  
"I thought not," Wu Fei said. "We both have had enough of them."  
  
Heero left his paper to take a tray of food to Duo.  
  
"Is he awake?" Wu Fei asked worriedly.  
  
"A little while ago," Sally replied. "I think he can use more sleep, though. He was still groggy. His medication was much stronger than yours. " She made a face. "You do realize what it is going to be like trying to keep that man in his bed? He won't even sit still in a meeting, let alone spend days in bed."  
  
Heero returned with the tray still full of food. "He was asleep again," he reported in concern. "Sally-"  
  
Sally was going into the bedroom before Heero could finish his sentence. Heero stood with the tray, staring after her. Wu Fei turned his head so that he could watch the door as well.  
  
"How did you come to care so much for him?" Wu Fei suddenly asked, that sting of jealousy from the night before over taking him again. "I thought..."  
  
"It's personal," Heero replied tightly.  
  
"Did you feel this way before Duo was hurt?" Wu Fei pressed, ready to be angry on Duo's behalf. The ex pilot of Deathscythe, his partner, didn't need pity, and didn't need to be insulted by friendship born of it.  
  
"I..." Heero glared down at the tray in his hands. "No... Yes... It doesn't matter. It's not something that I want to talk about."  
  
He was missing something, Wu Fei felt. He was touching on a subject that was making Heero squirm and he wasn't completely certain that it was all about Duo.  
  
"You should have been his partner, not me," Wu Fei suddenly said and he was shocked at his own words, as if someone had gained control of his mouth. He couldn't get it stopped as he accused, "He wouldn't be in there, hurt, if you had been there to protect him. I wasn't good enough."  
  
He was accusing Heero. If the man actually felt something for Duo, even if it was just friendship, then he should have been Duo's partner. They were more suited, more in tandem with their skills. Part of it had been Heero's refusal, his insistence on being a lone operative, that had set the stage for this tragedy.  
  
Heero was frowning blackly at Wu Fei, seething and hands fisting tightly on the tray. Wu Fei saw the metal bend. "I had my assignment... and you had yours, " he replied."We both acted with the best of our ability. You didn't fail Duo."  
  
And there he cut to the quick and turned it all back on Wu Fei. Anger at Heero was anger at himself.  
  
"Forgive me," Wu Fei said tightly and wasn't sure that he was really forgiving either of them. The pain was still too raw.  
  
Sally broke the tension between them. She came out of Duo's bedroom, smiling reassuringly. "He's all right. Let him sleep as much as he can manage. He needs it."  
  
"Don't worry," Wu Fei told her. "I'll ... We'll take care of him, " he corrected himself.  
  
It was a relief when Sally finally left. Wu Fei could relax then and allow the pain to show on his face. Heero didn't hover and he didn't question. He had suffered enough gunshot wounds himself to know about the pain of recovery. He gave Wu Fei his dignity and kept his back mostly turned as he finished his paper, cleaned his gun, and then listened to a radio talk program.  
  
"Politics?" Wu Fei grunted as he tucked a pillow under him to ease the pressure on one of his wounds.  
  
Heero replied absently as he finished reassembling his gun, "I like to know what people think. It can tell you a great deal.."  
  
"So?" Wu Fei asked curiously. "What is it telling you now?"  
  
"That Relena is still considered young and that confidence in her ability to govern is based on her elected advisors," Heero replied. "People are afraid that she will not step aside when elections are held next year."  
  
"If she loses," Wu Fei said. "She's very popular. She may be elected again." Heero made a sound. Wu Fei tried to decipher it and then sighed. "You don't think that she should try for re- election?"  
  
"No," Heero replied. "She became the leader because of necessity. If she tries to hold that power, even with an election, she risks looking illegitimate. People might lose faith in the process. They have to see a change of power to believe in the peace."  
  
It was Wu Fei's turn to make an undecipherable noise. He regarded Heero's intent concentration on the radio show and then he divined, "You're worried that there might be another war."  
  
"Yes," Heero replied heavily and then looked pained. "I don't want to fight like that anymore. I... I have other things to live for now."  
  
Wu Fei frowned. "Is there a difference between fighting in a war and fighting crime?"  
  
"I can clock out at the end of the day and live for myself," Heero replied. He turned up the volume of the radio, a clear signal that he didn't want to talk anymore.  
  
Wu Fei regarded him and realized that he had often thought of Heero as one dimensional; an agent and a weapon to be used during missions. He hadn't considered what kind of life Heero lived after work. In the back of his mind, he had pictured Heero honing and refining himself diligently until he received his next orders. Heero liked politics, liked following the pulse beat of the people he had almost given up his life to free. Wu Fei wondered what else he spent his time doing.  
  
There was a plastic parts bin next to the futon. Bored and wanting to take his mind off his pain, Wu Fei sorted through it. Under a gyro and a fuel timer, he found a stack of car magazines, a ship specs subscription, an old banana peel, a rejection letter from a shuttle firm, and a book . Wu Fei pondered over the rejection letter, before putting is aside, tossed the almost mummified banana peel onto the coffee table to be disposed of later, and then flipped through the book.  
  
King Arthur, Wu Fei read, amused and puzzled. The book looked very worn, as if it had been lovingly read hundreds of times. It had illustrations and a book mark that was part of a news article ripped into a strip and laminated.   
  
And they gathered together, Wu Fei read, like the knights of King Arthur, and brought justice and freedom to us all.  
  
Wu Fei propped the book up and began to read it from the beginning.  
  
After several hours, a pair of wadded up underwear came flying out of Duo's door.  
  
Heero snorted and left his stool. "I think he's awake."  
  
"We should get a bell for him to ring or he'll try using his voice," Wu Fei suggested as he made his own book mark with one of his long black hairs.   
  
Heero grunted and went into the bedroom. He came back out again and began heating up Duo's food. "Hungry," he reported.  
  
"I would like to see him," Wu Fei told Heero. "I should be walking anyway."  
  
"Wait until I'm done with his food," Heero told him worriedly. "Then I can help you."  
  
"I don't require your assistance!" Wu Fei grumbled as he put the book aside and swung his legs over the edge of the futon. Without the comforting numbness of the drugs, the pain was almost blinding. He gasped and tried not to pant until it subsided.  
  
"Perhaps... waiting would be wise," Wu Fei amended.  
  
Hero was wise and didn't comment. He took Duo his tray of food and then came back to help Wu Fei.  
  
"He wants to see you," Heero told him as he put a hand under Wu Fei's elbow.  
  
That warmed Wu Fei and it was hard not to smile. He stood on his own and Heero didn't insult him by lending support unasked for. Heero simply kept a hand ready in case Wu Fei fell. Wu Fei was determined not to suffer that humiliation.  
  
Wu Fei was glad that Heero had thought to set up a chair near Duo's bed. He barely made it there and he tried not to notice that he needed to lean on Heero's steadying hand as he sat down.  
  
Duo was lying back on his pillows and smiling brightly, though the shadows under his eyes and his pinched look let Wu Fei know that he was feeling pain.  
  
"How are you feeling?" Wu Fei asked.  
  
"Better," Duo whispered.  
  
"Duo, use the clipboard," Heero warned.  
  
Duo made a face. "Can talk. Just not loud... or much."  
  
"If you don't use the clipboard," Wu Fei warned, hating how it felt as if he were talking to a child, "We won't talk to you."  
  
"Bastards," Duo grumbled, but he dutifully picked up the clipboard and scribbled, 'I'm fine. You?'  
  
"Like hell," Wu Fei replied truthfully and saw Duo start in surprise. "I know you do too." Wu Fei continued. "But it's worth being free of that place and those drugs."  
  
Duo nodded emphatically. He patted his bed and then wrote. 'Slept like the dead. Much better here.'  
  
"Agreed," Wu Fei replied, but then he testily added, "I would like to request better reading material though. Car magazines and King Arthur will not keep me from boredom for very long."  
  
Duo suddenly blushed red.  
  
"Duo?" Heero asked in alarm. "Are you feeling sick?"  
  
Duo wrote reluctantly, 'Thought I hid that book pretty well. Guess not.'  
  
"You shouldn't be ashamed of it," Wu Fei told him. "I wonder why you don't have more classics, if you enjoyed that one so much?"  
  
Duo looked as if he would have liked the bed to swallow him whole. He wrote. 'I just like that one, because it was like us.'  
  
"Like us?" Wu Fei questioned, confused.  
  
Duo smiled wistfully then, but he was still embarrassed. Surprisingly, it was Heero who said, "Knight joining together to fight for justice and freedom." and he nodded understanding.  
  
Duo went wide eyed, nodding back. 'Yeah,' he wrote. 'News guy wrote about it. I didn't know what he was talking about so I stole the book and read it.' He looked sheepish.  
  
"And kept reading it," Wu Fei pointed out amused.  
  
Duo grinned.  
  
Wu Fei could understand Duo's obsession with the book. During the war, he had searched for his own justification, his own reasons for fighting and killing. A soldier couldn't fight without knowing what he was fighting for. Wu Fei had chosen justice. Heero had chosen duty. Quatre had chosen compassion. Trowa had fought because it was all he had ever done. Duo had chosen destiny. He had decided to believe that it was their destiny to fight and win for peace, to defeat evil, and to save the people. High ideals for a former street child of L2. It moved Wu Fei to see this unknown facet of his brash and fearless partner.  
  
"Who was King Arthur?" Wu Fei asked.  
  
"Quatre," Duo whispered. Embarrassed into blushing again.  
  
"Does that make Trowa Guinevere?" Wu Fei chuckled and Duo glared. "Lancelot, then," Wu Fei amended, "without the adultery?" Duo nodded. "Who's the wise Merlin?"  
  
"Dr, G," Duo replied, but then looked troubled.  
  
"Merlin was the son of the devil in some versions of the tale," Wu Fei pointed out. Duo laughed silently and seemed more comfortable with the choice.  
  
"I suppose the rest of us are the knights?" Heero interjected, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall near the bed.  
  
Duo nodded, but he was searching Heero's face, afraid maybe that Heero was mocking him. Heero didn't say anything more, though, and both Duo and Wu Fei were left to wonder what Heero was thinking. The man could be as unreadable as a brick wall when he chose to. Wu Fei wondered why he was doing it now when Duo was so clearly worried about how the man thought of him.  
  
"Do you need anything else, Duo?" Heero wondered, changing the subject abruptly.  
  
Duo shook his head, but then had a thought. He scribbled on his clipboard. 'Car magazines. I want to read them.'  
  
"I'll give you the book as well," Wu Fei told him, realizing that Duo wouldn't ask for it.  
  
Duo mouthed, 'thanks', but wouldn't look at either of them.  
  
Wu Fei needed to go back to his futon. He concentrated on keeping his body under his command as he stood up. "Sally will be visiting periodically. We should make use of her and give her some requests. There are things from my apartment that I would like."  
  
"I do as well," Heero admitted.   
  
Wu Fei caught Duo's eyes and saw that he was curious as to what that would be, too.   
  
Hobbling out of Duo's room and to the futon, Wu Fei said to Heero in a whisper, "He worries about your respect. Did the book bother you that much?"  
  
Heero looked sideways at Wu Fei, surprised. "No," he replied.  
  
"Then why did you look as if it did?" Wu Fei wondered.  
  
Heero helped him settle on the futon before he replied, "I didn't know that he thought of me like that."  
  
Wu Fei frowned. "You two are friends?"  
  
Heero shrugged. "We know each other. We shared like experiences. He doesn't share his thoughts or confidences with me."  
  
Not with me either, Wu Fei thought, at least not deeper confidences and that troubled him. If Duo wasn't confiding in them, then who?


	5. Irritations

"I can walk by myself," Wu Fei grumbled. "The bathroom is over there; twelve steps. I will make it."  
  
Heero turned off the radio and eased from his stool. He was wearing a worn pair of blue jeans and a ragged button up shirt. His feet were bare. He seemed very young and unsure as he faced Wu Fei and said, "I don't understand why you don't want my help. Why do you want to risk hurting yourself again?"  
  
"I won't grow strong if I don't push myself," Wu Fei replied arrogantly, while a small part of his mind was cringing. Using the toilet for him was a very embarrassing and personal thing. Voicing his intent and need for help to get there, tripled his discomfort. Knowing that Heero was hovering outside of the door, waiting for him to finish, had stopped his efforts cold more than once. In this, Wu Fei needed his independence, what ever the cost.  
  
Heero suddenly smiled and Wu Fei glared, hoping the humor wasn't at his expense.  
  
Heero said, "I remember saying the same thing to Trowa... when I self destructed and he was helping me recover. I didn't like having him help me in the toilet and I had trouble with a urinal... or the pan he gave me to use as one. I remember being very glad when I could do that on my own."  
  
Wu Fei's jaw clenched and he gave back nothing to this revelation. He didn't want company in his misery. He did feel his tension relax, though, when Heero made a giving up motion and backed away. Duo took that moment to get their attention by tossing a roll of bandages from the bedroom. It hit the floor, bounced, and unwound for a foot before coming to rest.  
  
Heero scowled as he bent to pick it up. "Duo!" he admonished as he headed for the bedroom. "This should be kept sterile!"  
  
"We need that bell," Wu Fei grumbled, but Duo had given him his opportunity. He managed to get to his feet. It hurt like hell, and he used his arms, clasped tightly against his waist to brace his healing wounds, as he made his slow, laborious way to the bathroom.  
  
There was a fold of carpet. Wu Fei was too intent on simply walking to notice. When it tripped him up, he didn't have time for a cry as he went down full length towards the floor. He hit something other than the floor, though, something almost as solid, but not quite. Arms closed around him and he was jolted as he came to rest against a broad chest.  
  
"I've got you," a gentle voice soothed. "Don't struggle."  
  
He was in Heero Yuy's arms, lying between his legs, and too stunned to even contemplate resisting, as he tried to understand how Heero had been able to catch him. The man had used his body to cushion Wu Fei's fall, he realized, taking that hard floor against his back himself.  
  
"Heero?!" Duo's hoarse voice called.  
  
"Don't talk!" Wu Fei and Heero shouted at the same time. "Everything's all right," Heero added and then slowly sat up, still holding onto Wu Fei firmly.  
  
Heero's wince had Wu Fei trying to get off of his chest. "You're hurt?"  
  
"Don't," Heero warned. "I'll get you to the bathroom. Move with me, not against me."  
  
Heero rose and lifted Wu Fei along with him. When they were both standing, Heero said tightly, "Duo told me not to let you bully me."  
  
Wu Fei went red. "It was the carpet," he accused hotly. "I was fine until I tripped."  
  
"Are you all right?" Heero asked and he kept Wu Fei in the circle of his arms. He was warm and solid and he smelled like spices.  
  
Wu Fei retorted, trying to regain his composure, "Are you all right?"  
  
"Bruised," Heero replied and then gave him a pointed look.  
  
Wu Fei admitted, "Right knee. I think I twisted it."  
  
"Damn," Heero grunted. "Toilet first."  
  
Wu Fei had to endure the humiliation of being helped in the bathroom once again, but his knee was shooting pain and he couldn't even hobble alone. Heero turned his back, keeping one hand under Wu Fei's elbow, but that hardly diminished his shame.  
  
"Sorry," Heero said after Wu Fei was done and they were back by the futon.   
  
Wu Fei glared as Heero helped him lie down. "For being there to help me?" Wu Fei scoffed, but then gave a small nod, the only bow he could manage in his position."Thank you."  
  
Heero's blue eyes sparkled as he returned the small bow. He was handsome when he wasn't scowling, Wu Fei thought, and felt a small shiver at the memory of Heero's strength.   
  
A pillow sailed out of Duo's room.  
  
"I think he wants a report, " Wu Fei growled. "Better go before he strains his burn scars and comes out here himself."  
  
Heero was gone as soon as the words were out of his mouth. His look of concern and worry troubled Wu Fei. He felt a momentary pang of regret and wondered at it. His wounds were making him ridiculous, he decided, and chalked up his errant interest in Heero to long, monotonous hours with nothing but the man to watch. It was hard not to appreciate someone like Heero, he told himself, but he'd be a fool to let that appreciation become anything more. Duo had Heero's interest, that was certain, and Wu Fei wondered at the sting of jealousy that assailed him at the thought of Duo with Heero.   
  
"I need to heal and leave this place," Wu Fei muttered, angry at himself. "Madness is setting in. I am not interested in my fellow Preventer agents."He hated how his attempt at reassuring himself felt more like a lie. Wu Fei dozed after that, the walk having exhausted him. He hated that weakness and the shame of it followed him into dreams. He wasn't surprised to find himself back in the firefight with Duo, firing round after round while Duo feverishly tried to defuse the bomb.  
  
"Hurry, hurry!" Wu Fei shouted as he fired two shots over Duo's head, ruffling his partner's hair. He could see Duo's face in sharp relief, every bit of his attention on the electronics under his working fingers. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. He chewed on his bottom lip viciously, his brows drawn down sharply over his amethyst eyes.  
  
Blood was running down Wu Fei's body. He could feel his life leaving him, his reactions slowing, and the kickback of his guns making his hands go numb. The enemy was flowing towards them as they rained shots down on their position, trying to overwhelm them by numbers. They stepped over dead bodies as they advanced.  
  
"Duo!" Wu Fei shouted, but Duo wasn't done, wasn't going to be done in time before they were killed. Wu Fei had failed. He wasn't good enough. He couldn't protect the one he... Wu Fei suddenly saw Heero on his perimeter, firing a laser rifle into the enemy. The man was strong, confident, and advancing fearlessly. The man was unbeatable, skilled in more disciplines than Wu Fei could ever hope to emulate, and far and above a better soldier than he was. In any other circumstance, Wu Fei would have died rather than admit that even to himself, but Duo... Duo needed to be saved and he couldn't do that. Duo needed Heero. Time to swallow pride and do what had to be done.  
  
"Yuy!" Wu Fei shouted. "We need you!"  
  
Heero ignored him.  
  
Wu Fei shouted with all of his failing strength. "Heero! You must come, now! I can't hold this position any longer!"  
  
Heero continued to ignore him and advance into the enemy line.  
  
"Damn you, Yuy!" Wu Fei screamed. "Duo needs you! I can't hold them back!"  
  
"Yuy!" Wu Fei gasped out, falling to his knees. "I am too weak. I am not good enough. I have failed Duo."  
  
Wu Fei turned to Duo and was shocked down to his core to see that his partner was dead, purple eyes wide and vacant and his body sprawled on top of a bomb that was ticking away to zero.  
  
"Failed..." Wu Fei breathed and then began to turn the last round of one of his guns on himself.  
  
"Shit!Fei!" Duo's hoarse voice shouted in his ear. Hands shook at Wu Fei. It hurt, but that pain brought him out of his nightmare, shuddering and breaking out in a cold sweat.   
  
"Duo!" Heero's voice shouted in warning as Wu Fei flailed and tried to sit up.  
  
"Got you, buddy!" Hands clasped him tight and Wu Fei finally focused on Duo on the futon with him, wrapped around his body and face close to his own.  
  
Heero had Wu Fei tight by the shoulders. "Duo is all right," he said firmly and clearly. "He is not dead, not in any danger. He doesn't need to be saved."  
  
Wu Fei blinked first at Heero and then at Duo as his insides threatened to turn into jelly. He shivered all over in reaction.  
  
"Bad?" Duo croaked.  
  
Wu Fei nodded jerkily as Heero handed him a small towel. He wiped his sweat slicked face and then realized several things at once. He levered himself away from Duo. "Your burns... you're talking... Duo..."  
  
"So'kay, "Duo told him. He let Wu Fei go though and sat up.   
  
"No it isn't," Wu Fei growled. "Yuy, take him back to his bed. Duo, Sally said that you weren't to speak until she signed off on it. If you strain the skin on your wounds, you could scar very badly. You know that."  
  
Duo made an angry face, but then it softened and he leaned in close to whisper into Wu Fei's ear, "You're the best partner, Fei. You did save me."  
  
Wu Fei blushed hotly and pulled away, not believing that for a second. He was met by Heero's irritated _expression.  
  
"I could not have done better than you did that day," Heero told him. "My reflexes are not faster than yours. I could not have stopped a barrage of bullets from hitting Duo. Chang... we found shredded bullets all around Duo. You shot them out of mid air."  
  
Duo grinned. 'Superman', he mouthed.  
  
Wu Fei digested that, trying to remember the almost trance like state that he had fallen in to, the one that let him feel every vibration in the air; every flick of a fly's wings.  
  
Heero was still looking irritated as he sat on the edge of the futon. "Chang... you are convinced that I would make a better partner for Duo, but you assume that I haven't already explored that and found it not to be true. If I had been there..." Heero paused and Wu Fei could tell that it was hard for Heero to say the next words, "I would have tried to... diffuse the bomb myself." That sentence was stilted as if he had changed what he had been about to say in mid sentence. "I'm used to working alone. I wouldn't have trusted Duo to complete the mission. You kept your position. You kept guarding him. You didn't sacrifice yourself..." Again he stopped and looked away, _expression as hard as granite.  
  
Duo was looking furious, but then he suddenly looked stunned. He punched Heero on the shoulder and then grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him in close. He whispered something. Heero looked uncomfortable. Duo whispered again, more insistent. Heero nodded, once, and then stood up and offered Duo his hand.   
  
"You need to be back in bed, I'll take you there." Heero sounded stern, not someone to defy.  
  
Duo grinned, crossed his arms over his chest, and refused to move. 'This is nice, right here,' he mouthed.'Need company.'  
  
Heero growled and stalked away to his stool. He sat down, gave them his back, and turned up his talk radio.  
  
Wu Fei was still recovering from his guilt and his nightmare. It was hard to deal with confusion as well. "What did you say to him?" he asked.  
  
Duo looked uncertain and then decided something. He leaned in close and whispered, his voice going papery thin with over use. "Asked him if he would have shielded me."  
  
And died doing it, Wu Fei finished silently. Heero had nodded yes. Wu Fei was stunned, trying to understand. That wasn't the Heero Yuy that he knew. Heero's answer, that he would have shoved Duo out of the way and diffused the bomb himself, seemed far more likely. Wu Fei had fired until the end, knowing that he was better alive and keeping the enemy from stopping Duo, even at the cost of Duo taking bullets himself. Heero had confessed that he couldn't have allowed that, that he would have been Duo's human shield. Foolishness and weakness, Wu Fei thought, outraged.  
  
Duo tugged on his small pigtail to get his attention. He wagged a finger at Wu Fei, warning him against judging Heero. It was hard not to, though, or to not feel some relief that he had been wrong about the man. Wu Fei really was the best partner for Duo.  
  
Duo pulled on his pigtail again and Wu Fei glared at him. Duo made a face and mouthed, 'Hard for him to say that. Don't get smug.'  
  
Stung, Wu Fei nodded. He looked over at Heero's stiff shoulders. Duo's finger prodded him in the ribs, wanting him to say something. Instead of finding words to bring Heero back to them, though, he found himself saying, "Liar."  
  
Heero jerked around to look at him, brows drawn down sharply over his blue eyes.   
  
"You would have tried to diffuse the bomb yourself," Wu Fei accused. "That's the man I know, Heero Yuy from the war."  
  
Emotions flickered over Heero's face before he turned away again. "That man wasn't really me."  
  
"No?" Wu Fei refused to let it go.  
  
"I... I've talked to people since then," Heero replied. "There are some things... that I can't sacrifice any longer."  
  
Therapy? Was Heero admitting that he had sought therapy? Wu Fei exchanged looks with Duo, but Duo seemed as confused as he was. He began to prod Wu Fei again, but Wu Fei shook his head. A man needed to save some face after an admission like that. He needed some space. Duo sighed and looked pained, but he didn't insist.  
  
"Are you feeling all right?" Wu Fei wondered. "You didn't hurt yourself coming to the futon?"  
  
Duo snorted and shook his head as if Wu Fei was being stupid. He motioned to Wu Fei, wanting to know if he had hurt himself thrashing in his nightmare.  
  
Wu Fei pulled up his shirt and checked his bandages.. "All right, I think," he reported as he pulled his shirt back down, but then he suddenly felt like saving some face himself. He had cried out like a child in his nightmare and they had come running to comfort him. They now knew his fear of being a failure.  
  
Duo patted his arm and Duo's _expression told him that Duo understood what he was thinking. He pointed to his head and mouthed, 'dreams', and made a crazy motion with one finger. Meaning that nobody could control their dreams or what was in them. Duo wasn't going to take Wu Fei's dream seriously or hold it against him. Wu Fei took it very seriously, though, and he couldn't forget the feeling of horror at seeing Duo dead. It had gone far beyond what a man might feel for a fallen partner, a fallen friend, however dear. Wu Fei had been willing to end his life, in his dream, and he knew, with a shock of self realization, that he would have done the same in real life. Being the cause of Duo's death, and trying to live beyond his death, had not been an option.  
  
Wu Fei went pale. Duo gripped his arm in concern. Wu Fei looked down at Duo's hand, feeling the strength of those fingers, and the passion of the man behind them. Wu Fei felt the rise of passion in himself and he couldn't help placing a hand over Duo's. Duo's fingers tightened and he gasped. Wu Fei was afraid to look him in the eye, afraid of what he would see there, because, somehow, he had crossed the line, the line that kept friends and partners just that and nothing more. Chang Wu Fei at last understood all of the roiling and powerful emotions within himself that he had been throttling and denying for too long. He was in love with Duo Maxwell.


	6. Therapy

Duo suddenly squeezed in next to Wu Fei on the futon and stretched out along Wu Fei's body. Wu Fei stiffened uncertainly and was shocked enough to finally look at Duo. Duo was smiling warmly at him as if they were sharing a secret. His amethyst eyes sparkled. Wu Fei felt... he wasn't sure... hot, cold, frightened? Did Duo realize or was he still being comforting?  
  
Duo leaned in very close and said, his warm breath in Wu Fei's ear, "It's okay."  
  
Relief flooded through Wu Fei's body, but he was still too unsure, still to new to this revelation about his best friend, his partner. He turned away, ignoring his pains, and said to Heero to cover his awkwardness, "We shouldn't just sit here... maybe we could have reports, paperwork, or research that needs to be done, sent here?"  
  
Duo made an exasperated sound. Heero was frowning, but then he was nodding too as he said, "I'll ask Sally to bring some, along with our things from our homes."  
  
It was very quiet after that except for Heero's radio. What was there to say? Duo lay at Wu Fei's back, humming a tune under his breath, and Wu Fei suffered on his side, unwilling to face Duo and his inner knowledge. Sally had been an irritation, but Wu Fei could have kissed her in relief when she came to check on them.  
  
Heero let her into the apartment and then stood close by, awaiting her report. Tossing her coat aside, Sally opened up a medical case on the coffee table, slung a stethoscope around her neck, and then blinked in surprise when she realized that the shape behind Wu Fei's shoulder was Duo.  
  
"Am I going to find you all in jammies, and having a slumber party, next time I come?" She asked with a laugh.  
  
"Woman!" Wu Fei growled, "It's foolish for Duo to be in another room, in isolation, when we are not sleeping."  
  
Sally raised an eyebrow. "Well, Chang Wu Fei," she replied impishly, "Does that explain why Duo isn't sitting in a chair?"  
  
Wu Fei narrowed eyes dangerously and then looked away when she wasn't intimidated. She didn't press her advantage, though, even when Duo snickered.  
  
She checked Wu Fei's wounds, listened to his heartbeat, checked his eyes, and then asked irritably, "May I ask why your wounds have been stressed?"  
  
"A fall," Heero told her and Wu Fei felt like cursing him. "Nothing serious. I was there to help him."  
  
Sally frowned, "Could have been worse," she replied, and then she turned her attention to Duo. He squirmed, choked on laughs, and bumped Wu Fei in the ribs several times by accident. Sally finally said in exasperation, "Duo, I have better things to do than deal with your ticklishness. Hold still." She hummed tunelessly and leaned over Wu Fei to reach him. Wu Fei turned his head and saw that she was now examining Duo's throat. "Slightly swollen, of course," she said, "but still healing. Take your medicine, Duo, and you should be talking again in a week. You've already been warned what will happen if you keep straining it."  
  
Sally turned away from them and went to the kitchen counter. Heero followed her and they turned their backs on the others as they talked in low tones. Duo grunted in suspicion when Sally passed Heero a small bottle of pills. Heero put it by his radio as she said, "Don't let these idiots exhaust you, Heero. You still have to take care of yourself."  
  
He nodded and said, as she re-packed her case, "We would like some things to keep us occupied."  
  
"Oh?" She was wary.  
  
"There must be work piling up at headquarters," Wu Fei interjected. "Our bodies are out of commission, but our minds are not. If you could bring some work here, things might be less... stressful."  
  
She laughed, "Making each other crazy all ready?"  
  
"There isn't anything to do," Wu Fei corrected her angrily. "We are not the kind of men who sit idle."  
  
"Meaning, yes, you are making each other crazy," she snorted, but relented. "I'll ask. Give me a list of anything else you would like and I'll make sure to bring it my next trip."  
  
She left and Duo was immediately sitting up. He looked angry as he pointed a finger at the bottle next to Heero's radio.   
  
"It's for me," Heero replied shortly. He picked the bottle up and jammed it into the front pocket of his jeans.  
  
"If those are tranquilizers or sleep aids...," Wu Fei began in warning.  
  
"No," Heero replied irritably. "It's not your concern."  
  
"Heero," Duo's thin voice insisted. "Want to know."  
  
"No!" Heero snapped and went into the kitchen. They heard a high cabinet open and the pills rattled as they were tossed into it. Heero returned to his radio, sat down, and kept his back to them.  
  
Duo growled and then stretched out on his back as if defeated. "Pisses me off!" Wu Fei heard him whisper, but there was hurt in that voice too, and Wu Fei found himself feeling that hurt as well. It was foolish, he told himself, as foolish as everything else he had been feeling that day.  
  
"It isn't our business," Wu Fei told Duo in a low voice.  
  
Duo glared at him, purple eyes snapping. He pointed a finger at Wu Fei and then at Heero. "Care about both of you," he whispered angrily. "Worried."  
  
For both of them? "Don't talk," Wu Fei admonished him as his insides clenched. Duo made a face, but then directed his glare at Heero's back. He'd found friendship, love, and rejection all in one day, Wu Fei thought. He was still just Duo's partner, it seemed. He tried to settle his heart on that and cursed his weakness and the possibility that his emotional madness was caused by his injuries. Of course Duo didn't love him, he thought bitterly, who could?  
  
Wu Fei supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised when Heero went to bed early and Duo begged to stay up late with his book. He swore he would call Heero and wake him when he wanted to go to bed, but then he made a face at Wu Fei after Heero went into the bedroom.  
  
I can walk, Duo wrote on his pad in clipboard in large letters.  
  
"Yes," Wu Fei sighed, "but you are not supposed to strain your grafts."  
  
Wu Fei was bored. He looked forward to the next day when Sally would have some items from his home and some work from the Preventers. There was only so much time that talking could fill and Heero had not been very good at contributing to that conversation. In fact, after Sally had left, he had been even more tight lipped and dinner and the long evening had been a quiet affair.  
  
Duo read his book for another hour, shifting and sighing in his chair. Wu Fei tried to become interested in Duo's magazines, but he found himself feeling a tension in the air. Looking over his magazine at Duo, he saw Duo shooting repeated glances at the bedroom.  
  
"Tired of sleeping with Yuy?" Wu Fei guessed and couldn't help his jealous relief.  
  
Duo put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture and wrote, No, he keeps to his side of the bed and he doesn't snore. Wu Fei raised eyebrows curiously and Duo added, I want to see what those pills are.  
  
Wu Fei frowned in disapproval. "I will shout for him if you do," he snorted. "Those pills are none of your concern."  
  
Maybe they are, Duo wrote. Maybe he's going to slip them to us.  
  
"You are accusing him of lying to us?" Wu Fei was outraged, but he felt a bit of doubt too.   
  
Yes, Duo wrote. He does and says what he needs to. Always has.  
  
Wu Fei considered that and then suggested, "He said he went into therapy. It's possible those pills are a part of it."  
  
Duo frowned now as if he couldn't believe that something could be wrong with Heero. He chewed on his lip for a moment and then shrugged with a lopsided grin as he wrote, I gotta find out, Fei.  
  
"You could trust him to tell you himself," Wu Fei pointed out. "It's obviously something very personal. You are violating his privacy."  
  
Duo looked frustrated. He chewed on his pencil, ran a hand through his tangled bangs, and then wrote, What if he needs our help and he's not saying so? What if we're messing him up by having him take care of us?  
  
That had to do with honor, Wu Fei felt. It was bad enough that he was showing weakness by needing care, but if he was hurting someone because of it, that was unconscionable. Conflicting morals fought for supremacy. When Wu Fei looked back at Duo to give him his answer, he found Duo's chair empty.  
  
Startled, Wu Fei saw Duo making his careful way into the kitchen. So strong and determined, Wu Fei thought and felt regret and a wave of pride in his partner. He couldn't let him hurt himself doing something that concerned him as well.  
  
Carefully, Wu Fei levered himself off of the futon. Pain shot through him, not as much as the day before, but still debilitating. He eyed the distance and determined to make it regardless. Bracing his wounds, he used furniture for supports as he followed in Duo's footsteps.  
  
Duo was stretching up high to reach an upper cabinet and having trouble.  
  
"Fool!" Wu Fei swore in a low growl. Duo turned and glared at him, but came and helped Wu Fei make it to the kitchen counter. "If you reach, you will stretch your grafts," Wu Fei warned unnecessarily. "Let me get the bottle."  
  
Duo sighed, but shored Wu Fei up by leaning along his back as he reached up and felt inside the high cabinet. Wu Fei's fingers found the bottle, but it slid out from under them and rolled further back. He swore.  
  
"I can't reach it," Wu Fei admitted in defeat.  
  
"Which is why I put it there," Heero's tired voice said from behind them.  
  
They both turned to see Heero, dressed only in pajama bottoms, standing in the kitchen's doorway. He looked sleep mussed, his chocolate hair disordered and his blue eyes weary. His muscled upper body looked as hard as a rock and Wu Fei found himself appreciating it even as he felt a wave of shame.  
  
"Yuy," Wu Fei began, but didn't know what to say. He had violated the man's privacy.  
  
"Tell," Duo said simply and pointed at Heero with a scowl.  
  
Heero looked angry, but then his _expression smoothed out and his impression of being very tired was even more marked. "They're for ulcers."  
  
Wu Fei almost laughed to find out that it wasn't as serious as he had feared, but he could see how wound tight Heero was. Wu Fei could see Duo go wide eyed beside him, but Duo refrained from laughing as well.   
  
"You have ulcers?" Wu Fei finally managed to ask.  
  
Heero nodded. He shoved his hair out of his eyes with an impatient hand as he came forward, stretched to reach the cabinet, and pulled the bottle down. For a moment, Wu Fei was very close to Heero's smooth skin, his rippling muscles, and his faint scent of male. He felt heat wash through him and he almost stepped back, but Duo's presence on his other side kept him from doing that.  
  
Heero turned the bottle around in his hands. His jaw clenched as he opened it and fished one pill out. He swallowed it, closed the bottle, and then put the bottle on the counter as if it were an act of defiance. Duo picked up a glass from the rack, filled it with water, and handed it to Heero without comment.  
  
Heero took the glass and sipped at the water, leaning back against the counter and staring at nothing.  
  
"You're angry," Wu Fei suddenly understood, "because you shouldn't have that kind of foolish weakness. You're strong, superior in every way, but... vulnerable enough to get an ulcer."  
  
Heero nodded hard, once. His jaw clenched, his teeth ground together, and then he said, as if the effort of speech was somehow a defeat in itself, "I've always had stomach pains. After the war, they grew much worse. Dealing with so many unfamiliar things and joining Preventers... Sally told me that some people are just more vulnerable to the bacteria that causes them, but that acid building up from stress is a factor too. The pills keep it under control. I'll have to take them for the rest of my life. The pain gets bad when I skip doses."  
  
"Therapy help?" Duo asked very softly.   
  
"With the stress?" Wu Fei clarified and Duo nodded.  
  
"Yes," Heero replied. "But I was trained to always be alert, always ready... I can't stand down, not really, in any situation. I learned to control my temper and they taught me..." He stopped and frowned as if he had said to much.  
  
Duo reached out and tugged on the waist band of Heero's pajamas. Heero was startled and he took a flustered step backwards. The waist band snapped back into place and Duo grinned.  
  
"Talk," Duo urged.  
  
"I didn't think much of my life," Heero admitted. "It was hard to get past my mission parameters."  
  
"Which were?" Wu Fei asked, thinking that he already knew.  
  
"When the mission was completed, I was to self destruct," Heero replied.  
  
Duo grabbed Heero by the arm, squeezing painfully tight, his _expression fierce and his meaning clear. Wu Fei voiced it, "The world would know your lack if you completed that mission parameter."  
  
Heero ducked his head, moved.  
  
Duo sighed and then he brightened. He pointed to all of them and made a motion near his ear as if he were holding a phone receiver. "Pizza, beer."  
  
"NO!" Heero and Wu Fei said together. "Sleep," Wu Fei told him. "Alcohol and wounds don't mix and we all need our sleep."  
  
Duo grimaced but didn't argue and Wu Fei suspected that it had just been a ploy to get them out of a difficult moment. His knees beginning to shake was another. Wu Fei stubbornly tried to walk back to the futon himself, but Heero was suddenly there and giving him support.  
  
"I don't want you to make yourself sick caring for us," Wu Fei told the man as Heero helped him sit."This situation has the potential to be very stressful for you."  
  
Heero smirked. "I'm an agent," he reminded Wu Fei. "I live a stress filled life."  
  
That made Duo curious. He said, as he began his slow way towards the bedroom, "Quit."  
  
"As well ask him to quit breathing," Wu Fei snorted and Heero gave him a warm, appreciative look. He looked so different when he was that human, that relaxed, and Wu Fei couldn't remember many times when he had seen Heero that way.   
  
Duo gave a short wave goodnight as he passed the doorway.  
  
"Do you need anything?" Heero asked as he pulled Wu Fei's blankets into order.  
  
Again Heero's solid, bare, upper body was very close to Wu Fei. He couldn't help the flicker of his traitor eyes as he unconsciously 'looked'. Heero's blue eyes were before his, then, blocking his view, and Wu Fei covered his indiscretion with temper. "Nothing. Go to sleep, Yuy."  
  
Heero searched his eyes as if reading something there and then he whispered, as if he was afraid to have Duo hear him, "Thank you... for understanding. I think we are very much alike." He lifted a hand hesitantly and then briefly touched Wu Fei's hair, just a light brush of fingers, and then he was gone and disappearing into Duo's bedroom.  
  
Wu Fei remained frozen in place for a long time afterward.


	7. Some Truths

Heero rubbed at his stomach and winced.  
  
"Did you take your pills?" Wu Fei asked as he looked at the man over his stack of paperwork.  
  
Heero grunted.  
  
"That means, no," Duo snickered. Able to talk now, he was determined to over do it to make up for lost time.   
  
"Yuy," Wu Fei admonished.  
  
"Heero," Duo said, making his voice sound like a hectoring mother.  
  
Heero glared, snorted, and pushed his paperwork aside as he stood and stretched. His back cracked and he winced again, this time for a different reason.  
  
"Getting old?" Duo snickered.  
  
"Maxwell," Wu Fei warned and Duo rolled eyes at him, grinning affectionately.  
  
Heero glared again and then went to take his pills. Coming back, he was holding one of the movies that Sally had brought over with the paperwork and some of their personal things. There was a sticky note attached to the top. It read, 'One of my coworkers recommended this, haven't seen it myself'.  
  
Heero flashed the cover of the movie at the others. "Have you seen this movie?" Duo shook his head with a frown. "Crimson Wind? What's that, a horror movie?"  
  
Heero read the description on the back. "After a tragedy, Franklin Stowe turns his life around and travels into deep space where he encounters new life forms poised on the verge of conquest. Their Queen, a -"  
  
"Beautiful, large breasted woman," Duo interjected.  
  
"With a remarkable lack of morals," Wu Fei added.  
  
"Betrays her people and joins him in the fight for the freedom of the Human Race," Heero finished with a raised eyebrow. "Have you seen it, then?"  
  
"No," Duo replied, deadpan.  
  
"No," Wu Fei echoed.  
  
Heero smiled.  
  
"Are you suggesting that we take a break and watch it?" Duo wondered as he put his paperwork aside.   
  
"Yuy's stomach says, yes," Wu Fei said. He stood stiffly. "I'll order out. Greek?"  
  
"Fish," Duo suggested. "With those little fried cornbread balls."  
  
They both looked at Heero. Heero made a face. "Nothing for me."  
  
"You have to eat!" Duo retorted. "How about..."He thought for a moment... "Soup? Baked bread with melted cheese... and... a salad?"  
  
"Who has that?" Wu Fei wanted to know.  
  
"Carmen's. A little hole in the wall two blocks from here," Duo protested, " They don't deliver, but they have chicken and rice, a great stew..."  
  
"Stew?" Wu Fei was suddenly interested. "With those... dumplings?"  
  
Duo grinned. "Yeah. Had it before?"  
  
"Trowa's sister, Catherine," Wu Fei admitted. "She made terrible soup, but her stew was very good."  
  
"It's just overcooked soup, Fei," Duo chuckled.  
  
"That's probably why," Wu Fei snorted and then looked at Heero. "What do you think?"  
  
"About Catherine's cooking?" Heero grimaced.  
  
"About the take out!" Duo retorted. "Yes? No? You'll have to go get it. I'm supposed to stay out of the city smog for a little while longer and Fei's still not getting far."  
  
"And you are not supposed to be speaking so much," Wu Fei added critically.  
  
Duo sighed and looked long suffering.  
  
"Sounds good," Heero replied and then went to get his wallet. Before he went out the door, he said, "Sally is on speed dial and so is my cell number."  
  
"Yes, mother," Duo replied irritably.  
  
"We will be all right, Heero," Wu Fei grumbled. "It is only Sally's over zealousness that is keeping us confined here."  
  
"And the fact that you can't walk more than ten feet," Duo said under his breath and then looked innocent when Wu Fei glared at him.  
  
"Proper exercise will bring me back to full health," Wu Fei replied stiffly.  
  
"Which she has to okay," Duo warned, wagging a finger at Wu Fei.  
  
Wu Fei frowned and looked away. "Are we going to get dinner, or not?"  
  
"Dinner and a movie," Duo chuckled. "It's like we're on a date."  
  
A strange look flitted across Heero's face, but then hew as turning and leaving. "I'll be back shortly."  
  
He locked the door behind him. It was odd, suddenly having one of their number gone, Wu Fei thought. It was as if Heero's absence had made an uncomfortable vacuum.  
  
Duo suddenly loomed in his vision and warm, strong lips devoured his own. Wu Fei started back, shocked, and saw Duo's instant trepidation. "Uh, did I read your signals wrong, Fei?"  
  
"I- I..." Wu Fei could only stammer. "What...?"  
  
Duo looked embarrassed and then upset. "I'm sorry. I suppose I wanted so bad for you to get interested in me. I thought, when you got so hot and bothered when I was near you... Guess that was just a normal guy reaction, right?"  
  
Only if you are a homosexual and in love with Duo Maxwell, Wu Fei thought. He tried to get his mental balance, tried to comprehend that Duo really did feel for him what he was feeling for Duo, but... could he admit it? What would happen if he did... especially to their partnership, their friendship?  
  
Duo was getting up, looking as if he wanted to find a place to hide. "I'm really sorry, Fei. I promise, I won't do it again. Just partners, right? You and Heero... I really think you two are the best there is. It was too much to hope that one of you would be gay or think about me... that way."  
  
"Maxwell?" Wu Fei cut in, knowing that he couldn't let Duo think or feel that way. It would ruin what they had more completely than anything he could do or say.  
  
Duo didn't look at him. His jaw clenched, he put his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and he hunched in on himself, as if he was expecting Wu Fei to shout at him in anger. Wu Fei reached up, took Duo's strong, calloused hand, and pulled him back to the futon. Duo sat heavily, staring at nothing hard. Wu Fei took hold of Duo's chin gently, turned his head to face him, and then kissed him very lightly on the lips. When he broke the kiss, Duo's eyes look large and hopeful.  
  
"Was that a, 'You're a good friend', kiss? The, 'Kiss off', kiss? Or the, "Kiss of death before you kill me', kiss?" Duo asked in a trembling voice.  
  
"It's a , 'I'm a fool and should have done this a long time ago', kiss," Wu Fe breathed and did it again.  
  
Duo smiled against his lips and then he slumped in relief. "Good," he said when Wu Fei broke the kiss, "because I was feeling like the biggest idiot..."  
  
Wu Fei laughed lightly and then was confused and shy. "What now?" he wondered.  
  
Duo shrugged and looked embarrassed.. "Don't know. Not much practice."   
  
"I'm lacking in... experience... as well." Wu Fei felt flustered now.   
  
"Maybe we should ask Heero for advice?" Duo laughed, but he was leaning closer now and his hand rubbed up and down Wu Fei's arm lightly.  
  
Wu Fei blushed, remembering Heero's strong body, the touch of his hand in his hair. It felt so confusing. Why was he thinking of Heero when he had just breached the barrier between himself and Duo?  
  
"Maybe he doesn't have any experience either?" Wu Fei said thoughtfully, remembering Heero's uncertainty, his shyness.  
  
"Heero?" Duo smiled, looking dreamy. "With that body and those eyes? He's hotter than hot. He must have lots of men and women offering to jump in bed with him."  
  
Wu Fei was confused and shocked. Duo saw his _expression and looked ashamed.  
  
"I guess I should tell you," Duo said in a small voice. "I've always really liked him too."  
  
Wu Fei was suddenly angry, "So, you were waiting for one of us to show an interest? It wouldn't have mattered which one? Is this only sex then?"  
  
Duo went wide eyed and panicked. "No! It isn't! I just..." He groped for words. "I... Dammit, Fei, I'm in love with both of you! I know that's messed up, but... I am."  
  
"Both of us?" Wu Fei comfirmed softly.  
  
"Yeah..." Duo turned away a little, hands clasped together tightly between his knees. "I'm not a whore or anything. I just... Look, I know I can't have both of you and it's not like one of you is a choicer pick. I'm not going to lie about that. I feel for you... but I'm always going to feel the same way about Heero too."  
  
Honest, always so honest, Wu Fei thought, while his mind tried to make sense out of it all. Duo loved him? Loved Heero? Loved them both? It was giving him a headache.  
  
Duo stood up and took a step away. "Yeah, I'm messed up... Didn't want you walking into this blind though. I understand if you want to...not deal." He sighed. "Can we forget about this? Go back to just being friends?"  
  
Wu Fei touched his lips. Maybe it was time for his own honesty. "I... I'm also attracted to Heero."  
  
Duo whirled on him, open mouthed. His voice failed him when he tried to speak. "Yeah?" was all he could manage finally.  
  
Wu Fei put a hand to his face, covering his mouth, as he replied, "Yes."  
  
Duo rubbed the back of his neck and rocked on his heels thoughtfully. "So... all we gotta do now is... get Heero in on this."  
  
"No," Wu Fei said abruptly, face going as hard as granite. "This is wrong, shameful. If we feel this way, it must mean that we are reacting to a sexual attraction, not anything concrete, not anything-"  
  
Duo was in his face, purple eyes sparkling as he kissed him. Wu Fei felt his heart thump in his chest, his body go hot and cold, and his innermost self say, "Yes, this is the one." but he had felt that with Heero as well, he realized and he floundered in confusion.  
  
"Messed up," Duo whispered against his lips. "But it's okay. Has to be. It's love, right?"  
  
Wu Fei struggled to deny it, struggled to find safer ground, a place that made sense, but nothing made more sense than how he felt. "Messed up," he agreed. "What should we do?"  
  
"Lay a trap?" Duo suggested.  
  
"Be honest?" Wu Fei countered with a frown  
  
"Heero buddy!" Duo mocked. "Why don't you join our threesome?"  
  
Wu Fei shivered and Duo was immediately serious.  
  
"Sorry, I joke around, but..." Duo slipped an arm around Wu Fei's waist, careful with his healing wounds. "He's not interested. I don't think we really have to-"  
  
"He is," Wu Fei admitted. "He..."  
  
"Spit it out!" Duo urged in astonishment.  
  
"Last night," Wu Fei said, feeling uncomfortably like a young girl trading love stories."He made his... interest... known."  
  
"Heero?" Duo was incredulous. "You gotta be kidding?"  
  
Wu Fei ran hands over his face and grimaced. "This feels so..."  
  
"Dirty? Sinful?" Duo suggested. "Dishonorable?"  
  
Dishonorable? No, Wu Fei thought, it wasn't that, not if they truly cared for each other. "Indulgent, decadent."  
  
"Sodom and Gomorrah?" Duo wondered."Well, to some people, just being gay is pretty wrong, you know?"  
  
"Not many, not any longer," Wu Fei sniffed. "Still, this is very... different."  
  
"Well," Duo drawled as he shrugged. "Still might matter, you know? Maybe Heero wants you, but what about me? I suppose I have to ask.... do you want Heero more than me? I mean, if he doesn't want to go for this, someone's going to have to make a choice."  
  
A choice. Wu Fei was drawn strongly to Duo. He could see himself making a life with him. Hurting Heero, though, leaving the man out in the cold while they found their happiness, felt very wrong. He couldn't imagine finding happiness that way.  
  
"I must admit," Wu Fei said, "I am not an impulsive or-"  
  
"I know, I know," Duo interjected. "This is damned freaky for you and it might be that way for awhile. I'll handle things then, all right? Leave Heero to me. I'll find out what he's thinking. Maybe he'll confide in me if you go... I dunno... take a long bath, or go into my room to have a quiet nap, okay?"  
  
Wu Fei nodded, relieved that Duo was going to allow him to absorb this new turn of events at his own pace. He didn't think that he could face Heero without knowing for certain that he was actually interested in them both.  
  
"My ancestors must be disowning me as we speak," Wu Fei muttered.  
  
"Nope!" Duo beamed. "They're dead. They don't have an opinion about anything."  
  
Wu Fei didn't instruct him on his beliefs. Besides, that bit of down to earth humor was strangely comforting.


	8. Settling Down

"He's asleep," Heero whispered, looking both uncomfortable and covertly pleased at the same time. It was the sparkle in his eye, and a softness around his eyes, that told Wu Fei that Duo's weight, sagged against his shoulder, wasn't unwelcome.  
  
"He likes to pretend that he is completely well, but he isn't," Wu Fei whispered back. "His body is still healing, still using all of his energy."  
  
The movie played on and empty food containers littered the coffee table. They had experienced a relaxing evening, full of easy talk and companionship.  
  
Duo mumbled something under his breath and then rubbed his cheek against Heero, as if seeking comfort. Wu Fei blinked in surprise and then grew suspicious. The young man had refused to outline his plan and Wu Fei had been given far too long to imagine disaster resulting from anything Duo should try to implement.  
  
It was shameful what they had wanted, and that was a feeling that had been slowly creeping back to reassert itself, after the first heated flush of understanding between himself and Duo had banked. Finally facing Yuy, Wu Fei feared losing the man's respect. How could he ask it? How could he propose something so decadent, something so out of the norm? He couldn't, he knew. He didn't want to hear Heero shout at him, call him weak, call him pervert, call him fool...so it was up to Maxwell, up to some plan he had called out of thin air at a moments' notice.  
  
Duo started screaming. Wu Fei's blood chilled and he reached for a weapon he didn't have. Heero started badly as well and then his arms came around Duo's body and held him securely. Nightmare? Wu Fei thought so. Duo tried to thrash, tried to defend himself against... something... and then he went wide eyed and awake from one instant to the next.  
  
"Oh, God!" Duo cried and he choked on a sob. "That was awful!" he shuddered and burrowed into Heero.  
  
Heero looked at a loss and so did Wu Fei. Was Duo crying? He couldn't imagine it. Under great pain and depression, maybe, but over a simple nightmare? Duo was shuddering though and refusing to look at either of them.  
  
"Just a dream," Heero said awkwardly and patted Duo's shoulder. Unfortunately, he used enough force to hurt. The light slaps alerted him and he decided to simply hold Duo again. "We are both here," he assured Duo. "You are in your apartment."  
  
Duo wrapped arms around Heero and there was a suspicious sniffling noise. Heero stiffened and Wu Fei was alarmed. The world was surely ending. Wu Fei edged closer so that he could gently rub Duo's back.  
  
"Duo," Wu Fei soothed. "Perhaps, it will help you to talk about it?"  
  
"I-I just need..." Duo sniffled again. "You're going to think I'm an idiot, or something, but... I just need you guys to hold me."  
  
Wu Fei's angry _expression almost gave him away. He had actually started to believe the little... little... love of his life. He sighed and decided to play along. He was stiff, though, and finding it hard to fulfill his part. He avoided Heero's eyes and gingerly hugged Duo from behind. With Heero in front, they made a sandwich with Duo between them. Their skin touched, they shared their warmth, and Duo was probably extremely pleased with himself.  
  
"This is nice," Duo sighed. "We should do this all the time."  
  
"Maxwell...!" Wu Fei exclaimed and then, finally, met Heero's eyes. The man was looking stunned. Wu Fei tried to remain calm, telling himself that it was too late for shame and embarrassment. Heero was stubborn, hot tempered, and not... an idiot. The deception was over.  
  
Duo lifted his head, sensing the sudden tension. He looked from Heero to Wu Fei and then asked, "Okay, who here wants a relationship with everyone else in this room? Be honest." He raised his hand, his act discarded.  
  
Wu Fei slowly, reluctantly, raised his hand.  
  
Heero went very pale and then he gasped in pain and gripped at his stomach.  
  
"Pills!" Wu Fei shouted to Duo. Duo broke from Heero's embrace and found Heero's pills under the mound of food containers. He read the directions as quickly as he could. "Two," he announced, poured them out on his hand, and then handed them to Heero.   
  
Heero popped the pills into his mouth and swallowed as he left the futon and went to get a glass of water in the kitchen.  
  
Duo scowled. "He didn't raise his hand." He sounded hurt, disappointed, and anxious.  
  
"Why should he?" Wu Fei snarled under his breath. "He was so outraged, he had an attack! Obviously he rejects our perverted-"  
  
Duo's scowl was directed at him then, "Perverted? I didn't know love was a perversion, Fei," Duo retorted angrily.  
  
Wu Fei throttled his temper, that was more fear than he was willing to admit. Duo had severely complicated things. He had attacked their problem in a childish fashion and come up with a solution that could have been a script on some ridiculous vid show. "Which show did you see this ruse on?" Wu Fei suddenly asked bluntly.  
  
Duo looked embarrassed. "Sammy's Place," he replied. "Two women, living together, and trying to get a guy to get in the sack with them both."  
  
"Ah," Wu Fei replied, feeling temper again. "Do you see where you went wrong? You were seducing, not attempting to explain to Yuy that we wish for an emotional, as well as physical, attachment to him."  
  
Duo found a snicker. "Sounds like you're re-calibrating your Gundam. No wonder you never went on dates."  
  
"Duo!" Wu Fei growled. "You are failing to see how seriously this might have damaged our relationship with Heero. We should have been honest with him and allowed him to reject us without any tricks."  
  
"But..." Duo began to argue again and then he swallowed hard, looking miserable. "I was afraid he'd say no... I was afraid he'd...get weird and never want to see us again."  
  
"Asking a man to enter into a three way relationship..." Wu Fei sighed. "Perhaps we deserve that type of response?"  
  
Duo rubbed at his face, looking weary now. "Maybe if we let him get one good punch in, we can forget all about this... but..." He paused his _expression was pained. "I don't want to Fei. I... I love you both. I've always wanted you both."  
  
Heero suddenly cleared his throat. They both looked up at him in trepidation, afraid of the worst. Heero looked tight and withdrawn, his wild bangs hanging in his face and his eyes hidden behind them. Very slowly... he raised a hand.  
  
"Really?" Duo asked, stunned and eyes wide.  
  
Heero pulled a chair close to the futon and sat within touching distance. He looked down at his clasped hands in his lap. "I've always been attracted to... both of you. I never hoped... I thought that Chang and I were the most compatible, so I've been-"  
  
"You've been hitting on Fei?!" Duo exclaimed and grinned from ear to ear.  
  
Wu Fei frowned. "I thought you were more suited to Duo," he said to Heero. "I've heard that people who are too much alike, don't give any strengths to the relationship, only weaknesses and arguments."  
  
"Where did you read that?" Duo snickered. "Me and Heero knock heads all the time. We couldn't work together if we tried. Me and you now," He hung an arm over Wu Fei's shoulders. "I always saw us together. We've been great partners and we're nothing alike, so I was zeroing in on you."  
  
Wu Fei thought about that."Heero wants me. Duo wants me. I want Duo."  
  
"Seems you're Mr. Popular," Duo chuckled, "But thinking about who I can get, doesn't mean I don't want Heero too.... and speaking of which...." He suddenly looked embarrassed. "Uhm, what now? I mean, do we put training wheels on this and see how it goes or do we just jump right into bed and-"  
  
"Maxwell!" Wu Fei snapped. "We must go slowly, cautiously, and let things develop in their own time."  
  
Duo sighed and stretched out on his back. "I was afraid you'd say that."  
  
"It seems wise," Heero interjected.  
  
"Meaning you're not ready to rip off any clothes and tango either," Duo growled. "Am I the only one with a libido?" He looked at them suddenly, going a little pale, "Uh, guys... do we even know what we want? I mean, there's ways of doing this. Do we switch off, I get Fei on Tuesdays and Heero on Thursdays? Or, do we have one big, uh, session, together?"  
  
Everyone was very quiet.  
  
Duo looked at them and then asked suspiciously. "Who here actually knows what they're doing enough to make any decision about anything?"  
  
No one looked at him.  
  
Duo sighed heavily in exasperation. "Okay, I guess we need to experiment, see what everyone likes or doesn't like. If we all want to... top... or bottom... we're in trouble." He narrowed eyes at them. "You do know what I'm saying, don't you?"  
  
They both nodded and then Wu Fei suggested stiffly, "Can we postpone this conversation for later, when we've all become accustomed to this situation?"  
  
"It is what we all want, right?" Duo asked and his voice was almost needy, wanting that reassurance.  
  
Wu Fei understood his rush to find their bounds, then. Duo was afraid that, if they waited, they might find sense and ... He swallowed hard and replied, against his better judgement, "Top or bottom, is all right with me, " he said in a small voice and shrugged.  
  
"Top," Heero said not a moment later, as if he were forcing the word out through acute embarrassment.  
  
Duo relaxed and said, "Top or bottom for me... though I know we might change or minds later when we know what we're really getting into."  
  
"Of course," Wu Fei said and felt the need to clear his throat. "We don't really know..."  
  
Duo reached out and carefully pulled Fei towards him until they were touching, and then he reached out and brought Heero onto the futon so that he was close as well. Knee to knee, Duo said warmly, "This is what it's all about. Being together, being friends. If someone's going to get jealous, or feel left out, it won't work That means we have to talk to each other. If something isn't right, say so, and give us a chance to change it. Okay?"  
  
Wu Fei nodded, but Heero was frowning. "It won't be perfect,"Heero said, "Someone might find that they prefer someone else."  
  
"Life isn't perfect, not by a freakin' long shot," Duo retorted. "So deep six thinking this isn't going to be without some bad days."  
  
"No one will understand," Wu Fei warned.   
  
"No, they won't, but what do we care?" Duo replied. "We're killers, mass killers, terrorists since we were old enough to get in the cockpit of a Gundam. They already don't understand, Fei."  
  
"That is true," Wu Fei agreed and felt some bitterness at that, but that was the past and he had learned not to carry it with him into the future."I think," he said carefully, "That no one needs to know."  
  
"Yes," Heero said firmly. "We should-"  
  
"Hide?" Duo looked suddenly furious. "If you're that ashamed., then maybe you can't handle this?"  
  
Wu Fei reached out and took hold of Duo's braid. He gave it a small tug. "That isn't what I meant, and I know Heero wasn't thinking that either. We only wish to avoid conflict."  
  
"Oh," Duo ducked his head. "Sorry... I'm touchy... I just want this to work... very badly."  
  
Duo looked weary suddenly. Exchanging a look with Heero, Wu Fei saw him nod. They had all had a very stressful day. It was time to stop and get Duo to rest. Wu Fei himself was feeling tired and his wounds were aching. Attempting to heal, and handling so much emotional stress, couldn't be healthy.  
  
"Go to sleep," Wu Fei ordered Duo briskly. He began to stand, to move to a chair and rest there, but Duo caught his hand and held him back.   
  
"You're tired too," Duo told him. "Lay down, Fei."  
  
Wu Fei didn't have enough strength to really argue. He stretched out along Duo's back and found a soft spot on the pillow to put his head on.   
  
"You too, Heero," Duo said sternly. "You have circles under your eyes. You stay awake any longer and you'll upset your stomach again. There's enough room. Lay down."  
  
Heero hesitated. They could all see and understand his _expression. Someone should be on guard, that look said.  
  
Duo snapped. "I can damn well take care of myself, Yuy, and so can Fei. Screw trying to be our guard."  
  
That was 'Mission Duo' Wu Fei thought with a satisfied smile, not the one who had been so impishly talking about sex and love. This was the Duo he loved, the one who could dismantle a bomb in the middle of a fire fight and still worry about others after he had been seriously wounded.  
  
"Stop trying to be the teacher and Heero will stop trying to be the guard," Wu Fei chuckled in his ear.  
  
Duo stiffened, but then said, "Okay, okay, but who else is going to get you guys together with me? I have to talk plain and crude and toss in some hearts and flowers too."  
  
"No," Heero grunted. "You don't. You have us. We know what we want. Our inexperience doesn't mean that we will be frightened away. Everything will be all right, Duo."  
  
So, he had seen Duo's insecurity as well, Wu Fei thought, and was pleased when Heero stretched out along Duo's front. They sandwiched the ex pilot of Deathscythe, but he was fierce and smiling as if he were being challenged. Perhaps his libido was what was being challenged in that position. Weariness won out, though, and he was soon asleep.  
  
"He looks like a boy relaxed like that," Wu Fei murmured to Heero, a bare whisper.  
  
Heero lightly brushed back Duo's cinnamon hair with a gentle hand. "This isn't going to be easy," he said.  
  
"No, it isn't," Wu Fei agreed, "But the alternative, denying how we feel and staying separate, would be much worse."  
  
"All together," Heero whispered and smiled with some embarrassment, his head nestled on his arm and his nose a bare two inches from Duo's nose.  
  
Wu Fei was startled, but then he imagined, Duo's wiry strength in his arms and Heero's strong muscles wrapped around him. He flushed hotly and then said, trying to regain control of himself, "You are more like Duo than you care to admit, Yuy."  
  
Heero chuckled, reached across Duo, and caressed Wu Fei's arm lightly, then he was turning and going to sleep.  
  
Wu Fei pressed against Duo's warmth, against the hard lines of his body, and couldn't help imaging them all together, being... intimate.  
  
"I can't sleep with that pole shoved against me, Fei," Duo snickered sleepily. "Are you sure we shouldn't..."  
  
"Sleep, Maxwell," Wu Fei grunted in embarrassment and turned away as much as he could.  
  
"Okay... but all together sounds much more... right... than everyone sneaking off to do it with each other.... er... you know what I mean?" Duo mumbled, but he was drifting off to sleep and he didn't wait for Wu Fei's reply.  
  
They already were all together, Wu Fei thought, as he looked at his sleeping companions. He felt suddenly possessive and in love, wanting to hold both of his bed mates close. He reached out tentatively and draped an arm over Duo and as much of Heero as he could. No one complained and he found himself relaxing and falling asleep, content.


	9. Respecting Love

"Turn it off!" Duo complained as he slowly did a sit up on the futon with Wu Fei holding his knees. He was grimacing.  
  
Heero had his back turned to them, nose in his newspaper, as he sat at the kitchen counter. He reached out and turned down the volume of his radio.  
  
"Off, not down," Duo said as he grimaced again and forced another sit up. "If you ask me, you're getting your ulcers from listening to that political rot."  
  
"It's interesting," Heero replied.  
  
Wu Fei lifted an eyebrow at Duo and Duo gave a snort of annoyance.  
  
Duo made another attempt at a sit up, but only made it half way. He winced and collapsed onto his back. "Four short," Wu Fei told him. "Grafts pulling?"  
  
Duo nodded and seemed to be waiting for some pain to go away, his eyes shut tightly. "Sally would make a good dominatrix," Duo muttered. "Ten sit ups, Duo. Ten, knee lifts, Duo... "  
  
Wu Fei felt embarrassed. He would never be comfortable with Duo's off color jokes, he thought. Instead of replying to it, he said, "She's given you an easy therapy routine, and you know it," he defended. It wasn't what Duo wanted to hear, though.  
  
"Won't let me kid myself, will you, Fei?" Duo sighed and there was a hint of depression there.  
  
"You aren't going to whine about how you think you'll never be the same, are you?" Wu Fei shot back, "because I refuse to listen to it. There is nothing wrong with you that some diligent exercises won't cure. Now get off your lazy ass, Maxwell, and give me four more sit ups."  
  
Duo's eyes were open and looking amused, not angry."I need motivation," he complained.   
  
"Motivation?" Wu Fei smiled. "I think I can supply something."  
  
"Oh?" Duo wondered and there was a hint of nervousness..  
  
They were so uneasy it hurt, Wu Fei thought. Even now, their words were bold, but said almost timidly. They weren't sure of each other yet. When they had awakened earlier, in a tumble of limbs and blankets, they had separated quickly and gone about their business, none of them mentioning it, or their new found relationship.   
  
They were all awkward, inexperienced, and afraid of doing something wrong... or inappropriate. What was permitted, what wasn't? How did one begin to be intimate, to show that intimacy was wanted? How were they going to get over the hurdle that would take them from partners and friends to... lovers? Maybe... Maybe small steps, Wu Fei thought, small experiments? It sounded as if if he were looking for weaknesses in an enemy when he was looking for strength and certainty instead, but it was the only approach that he could think to take.  
  
Duo's legs tensed as he brought his weight up. Wu Fei braced him. When Duo groaned as he made it upright, Wu Fei impulsively leaned forward and kissed him very lightly on the lips. Duo's eyes went wide and then he let out a gasping breath.  
  
"That's..." Duo swallowed hard. "Okay, I'm motivated."  
  
Duo was in pain. Sally had assured them that it was a good pain and necessary as long as the grafts weren't split or bleeding. They needed to be stretched. Skin and muscle needed to be reminded of their flexibility. Duo lowered himself, took a moment to prepare himself, and then did yet another sit up. Wu Fei's kiss was waiting for him.  
  
He was kissing Duo and enjoying, Wu Fei thought, as he searched the depths of Duo's purple eyes and saw the same appreciation there. When Duo struggled up for a third time to claim another kiss, Wu Fei suddenly wanted more than that and felt the answering need in Duo as his kiss deepened. 'Yes!', his body cried out, 'Take him, take him now!'. Clothes off, body underneath, legs spread out and... Wu Fei's hands were up and ready to act, ready to follow where his heated imagination was taking him , but then he used force of will to lower them. Small steps. He broke the kiss and inched backward on the futon.  
  
"Tease," Duo complained in a strained voice as he lowered himself to his back again.  
  
"Sorry," Wu Fei told him, eyes lowered. "I won't do that again."  
  
Duo very deliberately made his last sit up, sweat running down the side of his face. His hand took hold of the front of Wu Fei's shirt very deliberately and pulled him in close. He kissed Wu Fei deeply, as if in revenge, and then fell back onto the futon.  
  
"... and I leave to Sally's cat, my favorite car magazines and my used gum collection..." Duo panted and grinned, as he waited for the pain to go away.  
  
Wu Fei smiled back. Kissing was good and acceptable, he decided, as long as it didn't lead into something they both weren't physically or emotionally ready for yet. He found himself following Duo's gaze to Heero's back, as if having the same thought, and then they looked at each other. Maybe kissing was easy for them, because they had spent so much time together since the war? Heero was different.  
  
"You having the same problem visualizing sex with Heero?" Duo whispered in an almost inaudible voice.  
  
Wu Fei went scarlet and almost spluttered. They hadn't been thinking the same thing, exactly. Now that Duo had broached it, though, Wu Fei couldn't help but wonder how he could casually proposition someone whom he so completely respected as a man and as an agent. Last night, Heero had seemed calm and open. Touching him had been natural. Heero had already kissed him. They had already shared some small intimacies. It shouldn't have been so difficult, imagining himself leaning forward and taking Heero's lips as he had Duo's, yet...  
  
"I want to," Wu Fei whispered as he pulled out a medical cream and opened the top.  
  
"So do I," Duo replied as he pulled off his shirt and rolled so that Wu Fei could reach his more inaccessible grafts.  
  
"It's just..." Wu Fei tried to define the feeling as he rubbed a small dollop of cream over a large patch of graft. It looked red and raw.  
  
"He's intimidating as hell, "Duo said as he looked over his shoulder at Wu Fei. "But someone has got to break the ice."  
  
"He already has," Wu Fei mused with a small smile.  
  
"Naw," Duo corrected him, "That was just fooling around. This is serious now."  
  
Duo was quiet for a long moment and then he said, almost a breath, "I guess you're kind of intimidating too. I mean... I've always wanted to... you know... but actually doing it... You sure you... I mean, I feel like maybe I'm not..."  
  
Duo stammered to a halt and then looked very uncomfortable.  
  
Wu Fei massaged lightly with his fingertips. "Duo, don't doubt how I feel about you, about Heero. Let's not make doubts part of our obstacle course."  
  
Duo smirked. "Obstacle course. Guess that's what it is, isn't it? We have to find out where all the no no's are."  
  
Wu Fei nodded solemnly.  
  
"I could get a lot of this out of the way by telling you mine," Duo suggested.  
  
Wu Fei's hands paused and then he nodded as he continued. "That's... acceptable. Heero should hear this, too."  
  
"Okay," Duo said uncertainly, "But it was easier when it was just you and me."  
  
"Heero," Wu Fei called. The man grunted and swiveled in his chair. "We need to talk."  
  
Heero nodded and came to sit on the edge of the futon. Duo sat up and put on his shirt. "Were you whispering about me?"Heero wondered and looked almost dejected. "If you've decided-"  
  
Wu Fei was quick to stop that line of thinking. "No, that's not what we were talking about."  
  
Heero relaxed, looking relieved. "So, then?" Heero wondered.  
  
Duo cleared his throat. "Well, I'm going to tell you all what's off limits with me. I think that might help... you know... get some of the shy crap out of the way."  
  
Heero nodded. "That sounds reasonable."  
  
"Okay..." Duo struggled to begin, eyes looking down at the hands in his lap. "Uh... well... I don't like people... forcing me... you know, making me get into it. I say go or stop. I don't like... that, uhm, anal stuff... you know... putting your mouth-"  
  
Wu Fei stood up abruptly and took several steps away, back to them as he fought with his shock.   
  
"Sorry, Fei," Duo said fearfully. "I've never done that sort of thing... but I've heard about it."  
  
Wu Fei gripped his elbows hard, head bowed.  
  
"Uh...," Duo tried to continue. "Don't like being tied up. Nobody grab my hair or push my head down to do... uh... well, you're likely to get punched. No toys. Just the thought of someone putting one of those things... well, only the real thing, okay?"  
  
"Stop," Wu Fei said and turned back to them, looking fierce. "Duo... What do you think we feel for you? Why tell us not to do these things? Do you honestly believe that we would demean you in that manner?"  
  
It was Heero and Duo's turn to exchange looks. Duo replied carefully, "Some people don't consider that demeaning, Fei. They think it's fun. I'm not one of them, though."  
  
"Neither am I," Wu Fei said angrily.  
  
"Okay," Duo smiled weakly. "Guess that means ditto for you. Anything you want to add, Fei?"  
  
Wu Fei blushed to the roots of his hair and floundered. They gave him time and it took several long minutes of internal struggle before he said in a small voice, "Nothing rough. I want respect, to be equals. Nothing... nothing demeaning."  
  
"That covers a lot," Duo said uncertainly. "I think you'll have to be sure to tell us when we're stepping over your line, okay?" When Wu Fei nodded, they both looked at Heero. "Your turn, Iron Man. What's off limits?"  
  
Heero became thoughtful and then shocked Wu Fei and Duo by replying, "Nothing, except, I don't want to be fucked."  
  
That was clear and crude and he meant it to be, Wu Fei realized. It wasn't going to be a subject for debate for more experienced times. It brought ugly thoughts to Wu Fei's mind and he found himself asking, before he could clearly think it through, "Has anyone been...molested in any way? War is ugly. Some of our lives have not been the best. I think we should know. It would guide us in our relationship with one another."  
  
Duo was wide eyed. He said tightly, "That's hitting us square on the jaw, Fei, but I guess you're right. Well... someone did it on my face once and he was six foot two and wearing an Oz uniform. Since he was holding the point of a knife up under my chin, I didn't have much of a choice. Not rape, really, but I still remember how he held me there..." he shivered  
  
Heero frowned. His arms crossed tightly over his chest. He nodded, once, and then half turned away. "I consented, but it was very unpleasant," he said. "It was a long time ago and the circumstances were..."  
  
"You did it for a mission, didn't you?" Duo guessed, going very pale.  
  
Heero nodded again, jaw working.   
  
Wu Fei swallowed. Now he understood Heero's refusal to be submissive. He found himself replying, almost feeling as if he had betrayed them, somehow, by coming out of life unscathed in that respect. "Some soldiers threatened," he replied, "A few put their hands on me... but... nothing like you experienced."  
  
"It's not a club," Duo told him, sensing Wu Fei's unease. "You're lucky and we're glad, right Heero?"  
  
Heero nodded.  
  
Duo blew air through his bangs. "Okay, that was hard, but it makes us closer though, right? We have to all get over the 'I'm not worthy', and the 'I'm terrified of him.' stage of things or we're going to be taking the 'alone train' right out of each other's lives. Nobody wants that, do they?"  
  
"No," Wu Fei and Heero both replied.  
  
"Good," Duo sighed and then smiled as he grabbed Heero's shirt and pulled him in close. Eyes sparkling, he seized a long, hot kiss. Heero's eyes closed and then he eagerly moved closer to deepen the kiss, banging Duo on the nose in the process. Duo started back, rubbing at it, and glared. "You have a head like a piece of Gundanium, Heero," he complained in a nasal voice.  
  
Heero looked flustered. "Are you all right?" he asked anxiously.  
  
"Yeah," Duo chuckled. "We have to work on our docking procedures, though."  
  
Wu Fei saw Heero's uncertainty. He was a man who dealt out death and destruction. Hurting, even unintentionally, someone he cared about, must have hit him deeply. That had to be remedied, Wu Fei thought. He gathered his courage, and felt butterflies in his stomach, as he reached out, took hold of Heero's chin, and guided their lips together.  
  
Heero Yuy was sex, Wu Fei thought. The touch of their lips, the feel of that strong, warm body so close to his own, the light feel of Heero's breath, overwhelmed him. He wanted those strong arms around him. He wanted that body pushing him back, dominating him, naked and powerful... and then he realized that he was on his back and that Heero was between his legs on the futon, devouring his lips and pressing close and hard.  
  
"Uh, guys?" Duo's face suddenly appeared, looking anxious. "Should I leave?"  
  
Heero and Wu Fei both reached out as one and gripped at Duo. "No," they both said and then Heero was backing away, his hands on his crotch as he turned and tried to adjust something trapped by his jeans.  
  
"You know," Duo said, looking from one to the other, "I think everyone is freakin ready, don't you?"  
  
"No," Wu Fei said again and saw confirmation on Heero's face. He tried to explain when Duo looked pissed and frustrated. He sat up and felt his own painful tightness. "You just proved that there is so much that we don't know about each other."  
  
Duo shot back acidly, "You sound like a damn woman- !"  
  
That was as far as he was allowed to go. Wu Fei was suddenly ice, his hand at Duo's throat. His black eyes were deadly as he said, "You will apologize for that insult."  
  
He could feel Duo swallow under his grip and he saw Heero tensed for action out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"O-Okay! Geez!" Duo swore in a choked voice, "I was just joking! Make note to self: No jokes about Fei's sex."  
  
Wu Fei released him and stood up. He went to sit in a chair and then said, feeling as if he had just burned a very large bridge between them, "I will not be insulted in that fashion, " and then added, "As you see, we are still ignorant of each other's deeper selves."  
  
"Yeah," Duo replied. "Guess we are... but," Wu Fei looked up and saw Duo's eyes sparkling again. "What we have is pretty damn strong, Fei. Mistakes aren't going to kill it."  
  
A tightness in Wu Fei relaxed. "No," he replied, utterly relieved. "It won't."  
  
"We won't let it," Heero chimed in and looked determined.


	10. Chances

"Well, I would have predicted two coffins when you started this," Sally grumbled as she checked Wu Fei, "but you seemed to, not only have survived, but healed decently as well. Yuy is a good nurse after all." Sitting on the futon with his shirt off, Wu Fei found himself smiling gently and saying, "Yes, he is."  
  
Sally, who was checking his bullet wounds, started and narrowed eyes at him."Duo can go back to light duty at HQ, but you still need a few weeks more," she told him. "I suppose you'll be glad to get him out of your hair at last?"  
  
Wu Fei frowned. "No, we've been getting along very well."  
  
"Really?" Sally was puzzled now. "Heero is all right now and Duo isn't annoying... have you been taking pills that I don't know about?"  
  
Wu Fei gave an angry snort. "No, woman, we've simply grown to understand one another better. It seems that we were under some misconceptions."  
  
"Oh," Sally raised an eyebrow as she handed Wu Fei back his shirt. "I thought something was up when I saw you and Duo cuddling on this futon."  
  
Wu Fei rounded on her. "We were not 'cuddling'! We were taking advantage of a piece of furniture that we both felt comfortable utilizing."  
  
"Ooookaaaay," Sally drawled and grinned."Do the others feel the same way?"  
  
Wu Fei was thoughtful. "I believe so."  
  
Sally grew more serious as she tinkered with one of her instruments. "You know, I always wondered why you three didn't get along very well. When you partnered with Duo, I was glad. I was hoping all along that you two would finally make friends with Heero as well."  
  
Wu Fei thought about the long days of one step forward and two steps back that they had suffered through and was amazed himself that they had finally reached a point where everything was said and settled. Now, they were hovering, in a holding pattern, waiting for something... what, Wu Fei wasn't sure. Duo was eager enough to cross that barrier between comrades and lovers, but Heero and Wu Fei were both hesitant still, afraid it could go wrong and destroy their respect for one another. "We have something in common," Wu Fei replied cryptically. "It brought us together."  
  
Sally smirked and Wu Fei felt his face get hot with embarrassment. She knew, he thought, or she was making a good guess. She straightened and gathered her things. "So, when will Heero and Duo get back. I really need to check Duo's throat and grafts one last time before I sign off on his return to duty papers."  
  
Wu Fei had answered the door and Sally had focused entirely on him. It hadn't occurred to him that she had assumed that the other two were gone."They're sleeping in the bedroom. Duo had a bad night. I think we're both finding it hard to forget our last mission. So many died...."  
  
"And you two blame yourself, I know," Sally sighed. "You need to visit Psych for a few sessions."  
  
"So they can convince us that we did our job correctly?" Wu Fei retorted. "We didn't Sally. We weren't expecting the second charge, we weren't expecting that many troops, and we certainly weren't expecting that much firepower. We were wrong on very critical information. That's unforgivable."  
  
"Because you didn't have it, doesn't make it your fault," Sally protested."Intelligence only goes so far. Sometimes, the bad guys are good at keeping things a secret."  
  
Wu Fei frowned and didn't reply, not convinced, as she went to the bedroom door and wisely called out a warning.  
  
"Everyone get decent, Sally's here!" She stepped inside then, but came back out in the next instant, cheeks pink and eyes wide.  
  
Wu Fei stood up. "Sally?" He hurried to the door and found two sleepy ex gundam pilots twined around each other and just waking up.  
  
"Uh, Sally?" Duo slurred, rubbing at his eyes. "Heero, I think she knows now."  
  
"I think so," Heero replied dryly.  
  
Sally laughed suddenly, but it was filled with embarrassment. "I... I guess that answers my question about how 'friendly' you've become."  
  
Wu Fei glared at Heero and Duo. "We agreed to-"  
  
"We didn't do anything, Fei!" Duo protested. "Heero becomes Mr. Tentacle man in his sleep. He always has."  
  
"Always?" Wu Fei was startled by that.  
  
Duo grinned. "Well, we ended up in the same hidey hole more than once during the war."  
  
Sally looked skeptical. "So, you're saying that nothing happened here, and that I should take my good doctor self out of here and mind my own business?"  
  
They all stared at her and then Duo said shortly, "Yeah."  
  
"I need to check you before I sign your papers allowing you to return to work," Sally replied, "So I can't do that. If you're done... holding each other... I'll get on with the physical now."  
  
Duo snickered as Heero rolled off the bed. He was wearing a pair of dark sleep pants and his muscles flexed as he tossed on his shirt. Without any hint of embarrassment, he padded into the kitchen. The rattle of pills in a bottle betrayed his real mood a few moments later.  
  
Duo sat up and Sally checked his grafts. "Looks good, Duo," she finally said and then she smiled at him."It's okay, you know, if you and Heero..."  
  
"And Wu Fei, " Duo added with a devil's glint in his eyes.  
  
"And... Wu Fei?" Sally went pale, mouth hanging open slightly. She recovered enough to stammer. "All... All of y-you... together?"  
  
Duo grinned. "Still not bother you?"  
  
"No... I guess," Sally replied as she put her instruments in her case and closed it. She smiled in the next moment and laughed. She said, "It's just..." she ran out of words.  
  
Duo laughed and said to Wu Fei, "Look! She doesn't have a snappy come back for once. Call the vid news stations!"  
  
Sally grumbled something under her breath and then turned to Wu Fei. She changed her mood when she saw Wu Fei's _expression. She threw over her shoulder. "Seems you three need to talk about this some more. I don't think Chang is happy with you right now."  
  
"Huh?" Duo grunted, but Wu Fei was escorting Sally towards the front door.  
  
Halfway through it, Sally said seriously. "It really is all right. I was just surprised. I suspected Duo was gay, and Heero entrusted me with that secret some time ago, but you? I didn't have a clue."  
  
"I think you did," Wu Fei disagreed. "I'm not ashamed, " he added. "You don't have to soothe my pride."  
  
Sally sighed and admitted,. "Okay, I did know. All together, though... I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years."  
  
"We feel that it is a union that will be beneficial to all of us," Wu Fei replied stiffly.  
  
Sally cocked her head at him. "You're supposed to say something about loving each other."  
  
Wu Fei's nostrils flared indignantly.  
  
Sally chuckled, "Okay, okay. Not the kind of thing that Chang Wu Fei wants to talk about."  
  
"Goodbye Sally," Wu Fei urged her.  
  
"Okay, I'm going," Sally replied, giving up. "I'll be back for your last check up in two weeks. Then you can hobble around HQ with Maxwell." "Until then," Wu Fei replied and closed the door behind Sally. He turned and walked back into the bedroom. He found Heero there, picking some of Duo's clothing off of the floor, and Duo sitting up in the bed and looking nervous. "We need to talk, I think," Wu Fei told them sternly.  
  
"Look, Fei!" Duo protested. "I swear that nothing happened with me and Heero!"  
  
"I know," Wu Fei replied, "But... perhaps, it should. I think we have waited long enough."  
  
Duo's mouth opened and closed and then he put on a serious face. "Fei, come on, talk to us. This isn't like you. Chang Wu Fei is not spontaneous."  
  
Heero stopped cleaning and sat on the edge of the bed, eyes studying Wu Fei."It isn't like you," he agreed.  
  
Wu Fei sat on the bed as well and tried to keep his hands from clenching. "Perhaps not, but neither of you can deny that I'm right."  
  
"Now that I think about it, It's not really spontaneous," Duo mused. "How long has it been..?"  
  
"Duo," Heero warned.  
  
Duo was unrepentant. He smiled and crooked a finger at Wu Fei. "Come on, then, let's do it."  
  
Wu Fei felt his gut clench and he didn't make any move to comply.  
  
Duo sighed in exasperation. "All talk, just like I thought. Fei, you still have some issues and we need to talk about them. The first thing I want to know is, why you went all ballistic when I made the bad mistake of comparing you to a woman." When Wu Fei bristled in fury, Duo pointed a finger at him. "Hah! See, there it is again! You want to strangle me. Why don't we clear some air? Tell Uncle Duo what's bugging you."  
  
Heero snorted. "Uncle?"  
  
"Okay, so that was weird," Duo admitted sheepishly, "How about telling your future lay what the problem is then?"  
  
Wu Fei hunched into himself. "Women are weak."  
  
"Don't let Sally hear you say that, she'd shove a buster rifle up your butt," Duo warned with wide eyes. "So, this is a bunch of backward L5 macho gone wrong?"  
  
"There's more to it," Heero said with certainty.  
  
Duo glanced at Heero and then narrowed eyes at Wu Fei, "You know how good Heero is at reading people. Tell us the rest." Wu Fei stared at nothing for a long time and then he said softly, "I've had trouble coming to terms with my... desires."  
  
"Ah!" Duo leaned forward. "Now we're getting to why you really want to leave me and Heero celibate. You think that wanting a guy to 'do you' makes you a woman, don't you?"  
  
Wu Fei snarled and began to get up to leave, but Duo caught him in a hard grip, his eyes angry  
  
"Is that what you think?" Duo demanded hotly. "Should me and Heero put on skirts, then? Should we go in for manicures and have our hair done? Geez, Wu Fei, you really haven't done it much if you think sex with either one of us has anything to do with women, or that women are weak, or that... okay, let's not try to throw all of your crappy L5 'wisdom' in the garbage at once. Let's just start with three men fucking, shall we?"  
  
Duo suddenly jerked Wu Fei hard against him, circled his waist with one arm, that was as strong as a band of steel, and devoured Wu Fei's lips with his own. Wu Fei broke the hold with furious strength, but Duo was on him again. Wu Fei's buttons popped as Duo ripped his shirt off, surging out of the blankets to push him down onto his back. Wu Fei rolled, but his hands found naked flesh when he gripped Duo to shove him away. Duo's lips found his again and their pitched battle suddenly turned into something else. Blankets scattered, bruised and panting, Wu Fei wondered why he was fighting at all. He had Duo in his arms, naked, strong, back supple all the way down to his firm, rounded ass. Duo was pressed full length on top of him and grinning like a devil, purple eyes alight with passion.  
  
Duo wound a hand in Wu Fei's pony tail, as he broke the kiss, and yanked, making Wu Fei wince. "Give up?"  
  
"No," Wu Fei growled and Duo was under him as he hooked a leg around him and used his greater strength. Calloused hands, grabbed Wu Fei on both sides of his face and then knotted in his hair there. A hard erection bucked up against his pelvis. Duo was still grinning and Wu Fei found himself smiling fiercely in return.  
  
"Feel girly?" Duo wondered. Wu Fei shook his head, speechless, and then Duo was reaching out, grabbing Heero, and pulling him close as well. "What are you looking at?" Duo wondered. "It's the three of us, not two and a voyeur."  
  
It was easier with Duo, Wu Fei realized at once as Heero undressed.. His fear of disappointing Heero, of losing his respect, almost killed his new found confidence, but when lips kissed his shoulder and a hand trailed down his spine to cup his ass, he couldn't deny the need in Heero's eyes. The man wanted him. The man cared about him. This wasn't weakness, not when he turned to hook a hand behind Heero's neck to bring their lips hard together. He thrust a tongue into Heero's mouth and felt the man open to him. It was Heero who melted, who sagged under the assault and closed his eyes to the power of what he was feeling.  
  
"Beautiful, the both of you," Duo breathed and then he was pulling them down to him and they were together.  
  
Mouths, lips, and tongues played first, tasting and exploring and making each other writhe. At one point, Duo was sitting and two dark heads were bowed and in his lap, his hands twisted in their hair as he threw back his head and groaned at the sensation of two mouths on him.  
  
Later, Wu Fei was sprawled on his back, legs wide apart as Heero and then Duo prepared him. Having two sets of strong fingers at and then in his entrance with cool gel, should have made him fear weakness again, but he was in control. Kissing and caressing them, it was Heero's lap he straddled when he was ready, and Heero's erection he willingly lowered himself onto. It stretched him, filled him, and made him shiver with sensation. Heero squeezed his ass with both hands, but it was Wu Fei who controlled the motion, looking into Heero's eyes as he rode up and down on him. He stopped before Heero could come and pulled off of him, despite the man's pleading. Wu Fei wanted it to last longer.  
  
"That was fantastic, but..." Duo licked his lips and grabbed the gel. "I want to try it, too. Time to find out how much control you have, Heero."  
  
Wu Fei wasn't sure what Duo was planning, but he enjoyed preparing Duo, sliding his fingers in and out of Duo's entrance while the man groaned and tried to keep from coming. His erection was stiff and red against his pale belly, and Wu Fei teased it by licking up and down it's length.  
  
"S-Stop!" Duo moaned and sat up again. "I want it good, not fast."  
  
Wu Fei smiled and slid out his fingers. He was conflicted as to what he wanted. Part of him wanted Duo under him, his erection buried where his fingers had just been, but another part of him wanted Heero again. Duo took the decision out of his hands. He turned and put himself on all fours, grinning at Wu Fei.   
  
"Let's give Heero a workout," Duo suggested.  
  
Wu Fei was startled. He looked at Heero and saw that the man understood what Duo was suggesting. His anticipation was clear on his face, and his eagerness. Wu Fei opened his mouth to decline, but Duo snickered.  
  
"You can just watch us then and lose out, prude," Duo chuckled. "If you're ever going to enjoy yourself, you gotta loosen up, Fei, and stop worrying about being weak, or how you look." He raised his ass and gave Wu Fei a clear view. "Are you going to tell me this doesn't turn you on?"  
  
"It... does," Wu Fei managed.  
  
"Then what's wrong with it?" Duo demanded. "You like it, I like it, and..." He looked back at Heero and saw his dripping erection, "Heero sure loves it. So, come on."  
  
Slowly, Wu Fei joined Duo on all fours, side by side, facing away from Heero. He couldn't keep from being embarrassment though, and he almost began to decline again, but a tongue swirling around his entrance, made him choke on the words. It was Heero's tongue. It was lazy and thick, making patterns, swirling, and then leaving off to minster to Duo. Duo panted and groaned.  
  
"Oh, yeah! Was that on my list of don't want to do?" Duo moaned. "Someone cross that out!" Heero went back and forth between them until Wu Fei was dizzy and overwhelmed by pleasure. His embarrassment was forgotten. He wanted Heero. He needed Heero. The torment couldn't go on much longer, yet Wu Fei wanted it to go on forever, that lapping, swirling tongue that was making all of his nerves quiver. When Heero lowered himself onto his back, a powerful arm on each side of him and a stiff erection at his entrance, Wu Fei couldn't help thinking of stallions and mares, especially when Heero nibbled at his neck, as he pushed in, and made a low rumbling noise deep in his throat. He didn't care, Wu Fei thought, pride and manhood, and ancestors of his ancestors be damned! He lowered his chest into the mattress and pushed himself back onto Heero, impaling himself and uttering a long drawn out, "Yeeeeees!"  
  
Heero chuckled and thrust back. He pumped a few times and then pulled out. Wu Fei groaned in protest, but Duo's echoing groan told him where Heero had gone. He turned his head and saw Heero thrusting into Duo and Duo clutching the mattress with both hands. He reached out, took hold of Duo's braid and pulled the man close so that he could kiss. His tongue did a dance with Duo's as Heero rode him and then he reached under Duo and stroked his erection.  
  
Duo laughed, short and sharp, and then he was reaching under Wu Fei and stroking him in turn. Heero moved between them, riding them both, but then he began to sweat and he finally rolled onto his side in defeat. Wu Fei was there, not giving him time to rest and going onto his side as well. Pushing back against Heero, he reached back and made Heero enter him again. He then grabbed Duo by the hips and pulled Duo into the same position as himself. He sunk his erection into Duo and heard the man groan. Reaching around, he stroked Duo's erection as he pumped in and out of him. After a moment's hesitation, Heero began to ride him as well.  
  
They came, not all together, but like a cascade, crying out and writhing, held together by strong arms.   
  
"I'm dead tired," Duo sighed at last as he rolled away. "And sore... and ... damned happy."  
  
"I never imagined," Wu Fei said as he rolled onto his back and stared blindly at the ceiling. He felt covered in fluids and, yes, sore, but there was a calm satisfaction at his core. He didn't want to think about what they had just done together too hard. In the afterglow, it was possible to find embarrassment again. It was much better to think of the new bond between them and to know that they were now one.  
  
"Heero?" Duo wondered. He turned his head lazily to look at the man. "S'okay?"  
  
Heero smirked and nodded as he reached out and pulled them both into his embrace. "This is good."  
  
"Simple, but, yeah, that's the way I feel," Duo replied. He eyed Wu Fei. "You aren't going to guilt trip yourself now, are you?"  
  
"No," Wu Fei whispered and smiled. "You were right. Something that we all like, isn't wrong, and... I don't feel weak, I feel loved."  
  
Duo laughed. "The L word has been spoken." He looked nervous and then he sobered and said tentatively, "I... uh... love you guys too."  
  
Heero looked trapped and then, as if he were cracking under OZ torture, he admitted, "I.... love.... I love both of you."  
  
"Did you hurt something, Heero?" Duo teased. "Okay, sappy stuff out of the way. Should we hit the shower and soap each other off now? I've had wet dreams about that for years."  
  
Heero blushed and admitted, "I have too."  
  
Duo laughed and rolled off of the bed. Swaying as if his knees didn't work properly, he used his weight to tug Wu Fei, and then Heero, up with him. He kissed Wu Fei and then he leaned in to kiss Heero, who leaned in at the same time and banged his forehead into Duo's.  
  
"Ow! Crap!" Duo swore as he rubbed his head and grimaced. "We have got to work on that, Heero!"  
  
"In the shower?" Heero suggested, deadpan.  
  
Duo smirked, "Yeah, in the shower. Come on guys."


	11. Terms

"But it was on my list," Duo complained as they sprawled on the futon in the living room, sipping coffee and tea, and trying to come to terms with suddenly becoming intimate. It was difficult, especially when Duo began things with an argument.  
  
Heero looked perplexed as he cradled his tea and looked sideways at Duo. "You enjoyed it."  
  
Duo blushed as he looked down into his coffee . "Yeah," he admitted, but then scowled, "But it was on my list!"  
  
"That you didn't wish to do that sort of act," Heero tried to clarify and then Wu Fei sighed, suddenly understanding.  
  
"But you saw nothing wrong with doing it yourself?" Wu Fei asked Heero.  
  
"No," Heero replied.  
  
"It's the same thing!" Duo snapped.  
  
"No, not to him," Wu Fei replied. "Heero is very literal, you know that."  
  
"Oh...." Duo frowned, tried to stay angry, and then gave up. He said to Heero, "It's like a flight plan, okay, Heero? Clear it all with the tower first before you do anything next time."  
  
"But you liked it," Heero persisted. "You don't want me to do it again?"  
  
Duo blushed even deeper. "It's nasty. I just... well, in the heat of things, I guess a person says yes to a lot of things if it feels good, but when I think back about it..." He made a face. "I really don't want you doing it."  
  
Heero looked at Wu Fei. Wu Fei knew what the question was and it was his turn to blush. He knew he had to be honest. "I... I liked it. It's all right with me."  
  
"Fine, you two, but keep that kink between yourself," Duo snorted.  
  
They were collectively uncomfortable then, sitting stiffly. After a few moments of that, Duo shot a glance at his companions and then suddenly draped himself across their laps. He looked up at them, grinning.  
  
"We had sex, all together, and it was really good.," Duo said. "So, stop looking like someone died and we don't know what to do with the body. Nobody is going to knock down the door and take us to prison."  
  
There was a knock on the door. They all froze. Duo snickered, reached up, and gave both their faces small slaps before he sat up.  
  
"You see who it is, Heero. Put on some pants first, though," Duo told him as he stood up and headed for the bedroom. Wu Fei followed him.  
  
The last thing Wu Fei wanted just then was company. They needed to talk some more and make sure that everyone was still agreeable to their arrangement.  
  
"Stop thinking," Duo told him and he suddenly found himself with an armful as Duo melted against him and looked into his eyes."Love you," Duo told him. "You love me. Heero loves us. I love Heero. You love Heero. We all said it. No guilt, Chang. No second thoughts. No running away because it's not the 'ususal kind of relationship'."  
  
"I just wanted to know how you were doing, personally," Quatre's voice came from the livingroom.  
  
Wu Fei went pale, but at least it wasn't Sally. He didn't think that he could face her just yet. He caught the shorts Duo tossed him and put them on. He watched Duo's rounded ass slip into his own shorts and he thought about what it had felt like to be in that hot tightness.  
  
When Duo turned back around, he smirked. "I know what you're thinking." He tossed Wu Fei a long, loose shirt. "Better cover your pup tent."  
  
Wu Fei looked down and saw his obvious excitement straining against his shorts. Mortification was enough to tame it, but he put the shirt on anyway. Duo was leaning into him again and reaching around to squeeze his hips.  
  
"Next time, it's going to be my turn to ride," Duo promised.  
  
Wu Fei felt another wave of excitement, imagining Duo over him, thrusting. He made certain that the shirt hung very loose as Duo laughed at him, kissed him, and then moved past him out of the bedroom. Wu Fei took a moment to compose himself before following.  
  
Quatre Winner was seated in one of the chairs, being handed tea by Heero, who had put on a pair of his exercise shorts. They clung like a second skin. To Wu Fei, it was an extremely erotic sight. To Quatre Winner, who considered them dear fiends, it was interesting, but nothing much. He sipped his tea and smiled at them as they sat on the futon, but then his smile dropped and his mouth hung open, incredulous.  
  
"You..." He looked from one to the other and then at Heero. His eyes went wide; blue, shocked saucers, and then he blushed a deep red and didn't seem to know what to say next.  
  
"That obvious?" Duo finally quipped. He laughed. "Should have known you'd pick up on it."  
  
Quatre looked as if he were mentally flailing. At last, he managed, "When..? How...?"  
  
Wu Fei was stunned. "First, how did you guess?"  
  
"I can see it," Quatre retorted and then looked down into his tea, his hands clenching the saucer and cup tightly. "The room smells like sex too."  
  
Wu Fei smelled experimentally, so sure Quatre was imagining it, but there, one the air, was the scent. He looked at Heero and Duo, feeling as if he could easily crawl through a crack in the wood, and then saw what Quatre was seeing. Languid bodies, messy hair, and everyone barely dressed. It was out of character for all of them.   
  
"Quatre, I'm sorry," Wu Fei began, "If we've offended you-"  
  
Quatre's head came up sharply. "Offended? No, not at all. I... I'm just..."  
  
"Not the kind of guy who knows anything about gay threesomes, especially when they include his best friends," Duo finished for him.   
  
Quatre smiled weakly, "Yes. That's right. I'm... I'm not sure how to act."  
  
"Happy for us?" Duo wondered. "It took getting blown up and shot for us to realize we go good together."  
  
"But... three?" Quatre persisted and then said seriously, "I'm not sure that can work. It doesn't seem..."  
  
"It's a relationship," Heero said firmly and his blue eyes were intense. "There may be three of us, but we do all feel for one another. We wouldn't have reached this step if we weren't certain of that."  
  
Quatre still didn't seem sure. He sipped at his tea as if it were required and then he was putting it down on the coffee table and rising. "Perhaps, I need to-"  
  
"Get your head out of your ass?" Duo snarled and stood as well.  
  
Quatre went pale, but Wu Fei had a firm grip on Duo's braid. He said calmly. "Let Quatre finish his sentences, Duo. You are ready for battle when one hasn't been declared yet."  
  
Duo snorted and sat down again, but it was obvious that he was reserving judgement. It took a moment for Quatre to regain his composure.  
  
"I was about to say," Quatre said carefully, " That perhaps I need to congratulate you. I hope that this is what you've all been needing. It's been my wish, since the end of the war, that we could all find happiness." He smiled gently at Duo. "You've never done things the proper way. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised now."  
  
Duo grinned. "I just need more loving than the next guy, that's all. It takes two people to keep me happy."  
  
Quatre laughed, but then he looked uncomfortable again. "It will take getting used to." He blushed again. "I should, perhaps, go now that I've seen that you're well... more than well, I suppose. I feel I've... interrupted... something."  
  
"Just talking," Duo snickered. "You missed all the good stuff."  
  
"Duo!" Wu Fei snarled.  
  
Quatre wasn't sure how to reply to that. Heero rescued him. He put a hand under Quatre's elbow and walked with him to the door, talking in low tones. When Quatre was gone, he came back to the others and looked disapprovingly at Duo.  
  
"Quatre was understandably surprised," Heero told Duo. "You shouldn't be angry."  
  
Duo ducked his head. "Sorry... I guess I don't want him giving you two any support for backing out of this."  
  
Heero sat beside Duo's and pulled him against him. "I know it won't be perfect for some time. We need to learn more about each other. I'm not leaving, though, unless you ask me to."  
  
"Neither shall I," Wu Fei agreed.  
  
"Then you're all just prudes," Duo sighed. "Here I thought you were just chicken."  
  
Wu Fei glared and then smiled. "I must admit that I am..."  
  
"Uptight," Duo supplied. "Maybe that'll change?"  
  
Wu Fei abruptly found himself on his back, Duo on top and hooking arms under his knees. Duo bent him double and he felt Duo's pelvis slap against his ass.   
  
"Even if I have to work at this, night and day, " Duo promised with a lear ,"I'm going to get both of you so used to this, you won't even remember what the word 'prude' means."  
  
Heero was suddenly on top of Duo, arms hooking around Duo's waist and his own pelvis finding Duo's ass. Melded together, he said, "I think we will need a lot of work. Can you start now?"  
  
+  
  
"Miss me?" Duo chuckled as he leaned against the shower stall wall and allowed strong fingers to play with his nipples as the water cascaded over him.  
  
Wu Fei pressed against his back and bit at Duo's earlobe.  
  
"Ouch!" Duo hissed.  
  
Wu Fei said reprovingly, "That's for being allowed to return to work before me. I was left with Yuy and his radio and not even paperwork to keep me occupied."  
  
Duo glared over his shoulder at Wu Fei. "You can't blame me for healing faster."  
  
"I think I can if it makes me feel better," Wu Fei replied as his hands slid down Duo's sides and then cupped Duo's ass. "Especially when you get to please me in recompense."  
  
Duo groaned and then grinned. "That's a punishment? It's supposed to be my turn to be in the pilot's seat."  
  
Wu Fei felt a moment of nervousness. It was because he had been thinking of Heero in the dominant position for some time, but Duo was someone he had wanted to dominate. Reversing roles was unexpected and new territory. Duo saw his uncertainty and looked reproving as he turned to face him.  
  
"You look like you're afraid I'm going to hurt you," Duo grunted. "I wouldn't do that, Fei."  
  
"I realize that," Wu Fei growled back to hide his misgivings. No, he wasn't afraid that Duo would hurt him, but it was the fear of their partnership changing. Respect was very important to Wu Fei. Was bending and allowing his friend to be dominant going to change how the man thought of him?  
  
"I can hear the stupid wheels spinning," Duo sighed. "I'm not imagining you with ribbons and a see thru pink teddy, Fei, you're a kickass agent who could probably drop me to the floor in any fight nine times out of ten. Just because I want to have a little fun, is no reason to think I won't respect you in the morning."   
  
He had come so close to the core of his thoughts that Wu Fei felt embarrassed. He nodded, unable to find words, and then he smiled a little and held out the soap to Duo. Duo grinned and dropped it.  
  
"Oh, look, Fei. Sorry about that. Mind getting it for me?" Duo snickered.  
  
"Maxwell!" Wu Fei warned, glaring, but he felt that nervousness again when Duo firmly turned him towards the wall and bent him over.  
  
Duo was pressing his body down onto Wu Fei's back then, his long arm reaching to snag the soap, and then he was rubbing it over Wu Fei's rising excitement. When there was a good lather, he dropped the soap and then slipped his own hard erection between Wu Fei's legs. He stroked them both with the lather, with a firm, calloused hand.  
  
"Ready?" Duo breathed as the water poured over their backs and his long hair trailed like a wet curtain over them both.  
  
"Yes," Wu Fei replied and then felt Duo begin lathering his entrance. It felt wonderful. He pushed back into those questing fingers, moaning and shivering with the sensations they were causing him. At last, the blunt head of Duo's erection was pushing in, slow and careful.  
  
He filled Wu Fei, holding onto him around his waist, and when he was seated fully, they remained very still, locked together.  
  
Duo said, "Fei, this feels terrific. I... I never imagined. It's like..." He pushed tentatively even deeper, "like we're connecting down deep somewhere... in a place that I didn't know I had. I've never felt this before."  
  
"Maybe you never cared so much?" Wu Fei offered and held his breath for the reply.  
  
"I didn't," Duo told him and then kissed his neck tenderly. "I do care now... a lot."  
  
"I do too," Wu Fei admitted, "And it does feel wonderful."He gave a small shove back into Duo. "Are you going to do anything or just talk?"  
  
Duo snickered. "Sorry. Fuck now, get in touch with my feminine side later, I guess."  
  
"Maxwell!" Wu Fei growled.   
  
Duo's arms tightened and he bit into Wu Fei's shoulder as he began to pump his hips. He started slow at first and then sped up until he was slapping against Wu Fei's ass.   
  
"Good!" Wu Fei groaned. "So good!"  
  
"Oh yeah!" Duo exclaimed.  
  
Another body entered the shower and Heero, naked and stepping under the spray of water, knelt on the tiles. Wu Fei looked down in time to see the man, wet hair plastered around his face, wash off Wu Fei's erection and then swallow it whole.  
  
Wu Fei bucked between his two lovers. Duo laughed and reached out to roughly caress Heero's face as he urged him on, "Take him, baby! Take him down good!"  
  
Heero began sucking Wu Fei hard, head bobbing as he tormented Wu Fei's erection. Wu Fei writhed, whimpering, and bit down on his own hand to keep from uttering a shameful scream of pleasure as Duo unloaded hot and heavy deep inside him and his own orgasm exploded into Heero's sucking mouth. The man swallowed until he was dry and then Wu Fei was collapsing onto the tile in a boneless heap. Duo followed him, but Heero needed release as well.  
  
Heero pointed his aching erection at Duo, swollen and large, and his eyes pleaded. Duo grinned wearily and lifted his legs as he rolled onto his back. More soap and preparation was completed while Wu Fei was barely aware of anything but the heated water washing over him. Then he turned his head and saw Heero thrusting fast and furiously into Duo, the man's legs held up high to give Heero access. Duo was crying out with every thrust, but it wasn't in pain. His pleasure was clear on his face, and on Heero's, as the man exploded into him, coming hard.  
  
They all sprawled under the water then and quiet reigned for a few long moments. Then Heero said softly, "Welcome home, Duo."  
  
"Good to be home," Duo replied with a bright sparkle in his eyes.  
  
Wu Fei smiled, feeling decadent and sated. "Perfect," he said and reached out to his lovers.


	12. Trinity

"What is everyone looking at?" Wu Fei grumbled as he eyed his clean desk in his office at Preventer headquarters.  
  
Duo leaned against the door jam, arms crossed over his chest as he grinned. "You mean them out there?" When Wu Fei grunted he chuckled, "Either they thought you were dead, and you're a ghost, or they heard we're all shacking up. Want to bet on which one?"  
  
"Quatre..." Wu Fei growled dangerously.  
  
Duo sighed and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. ... unless you're going to be weird about us? I could go out there and tell everyone the rumor is full of shit, if you want?"  
  
Wu Fei heard the pending disappointment in Duo's voice. He refused to see it realized. "No," Wu Fei replied. "My honor is in my own keeping, not theirs. Let them talk."  
  
Duo grinned again and darted forward. Wu Fei's back hit the desk and Duo was kissing him soundly, one hand wrapped around his tie and the other hard on his shoulder, holding him down. Since the door was still open, there were several agents who were watching, wide eyed.  
  
Wu Fei shoved Duo off. "Maxwell!" He sat up with a glare. "I accept our relationship in it's entirety, but I'm not the kind of man who enjoys public displays... of any kind."  
  
"Okay, okay," Duo said quickly. "I guess I'm just happy and I don't know how to deal with it right."  
  
Wu Fei moved to close the door to his office. "Duo," he said more gently. "I do understand. This is more than I have ever hoped for. I'm just not certain how to..." He struggled to express his confusion without giving offense.  
  
"Work with two people you love?" Duo suggested. When Wu Fei nodded Duo looked serious. "I guess we all need to find that out. I suppose every person in a relationship with a fellow agent goes through the same thing. I think I'll ask a few, to see how they dealt with it."  
  
"That would be wise," Wu Fei agreed.  
  
Wu Fei's vid phone beeped and he leaned over his desk to answer the call.  
  
"Agent Wu Fei?" Une growled. "It's good to see you back at work. Now, would you kindly tell me what you've done with the real Heero Yuy?"  
  
"Commander?" Wu Fei replied in confusion as he sat in his chair with Duo at his elbow.  
  
"He is pleasant, smiling, and agreeable," Une told him as if the world had turned upside down.  
  
"That's because he got so-" Duo began but Wu Fei cut him off by shoving him away with an elbow.  
  
"Commander," Wu Fei replied. "I believe that Heero was in need of a long rest. While the circumstances were very serious, it did afford Agent Yuy a chance to have some much needed down time."  
  
Wu Fei ignored Duo's snicker.  
  
"I'll make certain that he receives periodic down time in the future, then," Une said and the vid phone blanked.  
  
"Down time," Duo said and snickered again.  
  
"Are you four years old?" Wu Fei retorted.  
  
Duo sighed. "I'm your partner, that's what I am."  
  
Wu Fei picked up an information chip and loaded it into his computer as he said, "Well, partner, then perhaps we should dispense with crude jokes and get to work?"  
  
"Should we?" Duo wondered and Wu Fei looked up to see that all of Duo's humor was gone. "If this is going to be so hard for you, then maybe we should find new partners?"  
  
That made Wu Fei feel very cold inside. It was the very thing that he had feared when they first considered a relationship. "No," he said simply, but with all of his conviction.  
  
Duo smiled and it was warm and pleased. "Then let me be me, okay?"  
  
Duo hadn't changed. It was Wu Fei who was overreacting to something that his partner was famous for, his humor and his irreverence. "I'm sorry," Wu Fei said with heartfelt conviction.  
  
"S'okay," Duo replied and nodded at the screen. "What's up first, partner?"  
  
It wasn't much of an assignment. They were both on restricted duty. It was almost a dog catcher job, but not quite. There was an element to it that could turn ugly if they didn't do it by the numbers. Wu Fei was glad that Une wasn't insulting their abilities entirely.  
  
"Escort," Wu Fei told Duo. "A rebel insurgent being transferred to a high level security area because of concerns that his people might attempt to free him. We are to escort the guards as a backup."  
  
A frown appeared between Duo's eyes. "I heard about this guy," he said as he read the man's criminal record. Wu Fei watched Duo's skin suddenly turn very pale. The man shut down, that was the only way to describe it. He said in a small, uncertain voice, "Uh, Fei, can we skip this one. I mean... this is your first day, and I still can't get my gun out of my holster as fast as I want to. Can you pass on it?"  
  
Wu Fei wasn't about to go into a mission with a partner having doubts. His disappointment was keen, though. He wanted to begin work immediately. "All right, Duo," he replied. "We'll try the ranges a few times to make certain that we are really ready for an assignment before we accept one."  
  
Duo's relief was plain."Yeah, we really need to do that, Fei. Thanks for understanding. Uhm... I'll get us some tea. Be back."  
  
Duo left the office. Wu Fei stared after him. That had not been the Duo Maxwell that he had known. This man had looked... frightened. Wu Fei wondered if Une had felt the same chill when she had confronted Heero earlier.  
  
Wu Fei looked down at the report on his computer screen. The man's crimes were more than a few, but the one that jumped out at Wu Fei brought his understanding into crystal clarity. The man was charged with using chemical bombs. Wu Fei sat on the obstacle course, his head hanging and sweat rolling off of his brow and dotting the ground between his knees. He had pushed himself too far, but that was only because he hadn't wanted Duo to overdo it and harm himself. His partner was stretched out on the ground, one arm flung over his eyes to block out the brutal sun, practice gun resting on his chest, and braid snaking out into the dirt. Heero was glaring at the both of them, holding a timer in one hand, his other balled into a fist.  
  
"I called a halt four times on the com!" Heero snarled. The timer broke apart under the pressure of his angry grip. He let it fall to the dirt."You are both fools!"  
  
Sally came pounding up, breathing hard, braids flapping and case thumping against her thigh as she hauled it with both hands. She fell to her knees beside Duo and opened it up, fumbling quickly for her scanner.  
  
"S'okay," Duo gritted out. "Just... pulled... tired... that's all."  
  
"I tried to stop him!" Wu Fei panted. "He laughed at me and called me a girl!"  
  
"So you both had to finish the course then?" Sally snarled as she showed the scanner to Heero."That bit of macho shit is putting you both off duty. Heart rate is off the chart. Graft tears. Lung swelling. Did it occur to you, Agent Maxwell, that all of this blowing dust might be going into your lungs, and that it might be coating the new skin we implanted there?"  
  
Silence, but Duo's breathing sounded both ragged and angry. Whether it was anger at himself or Sally, it was hard to be sure.  
  
Sally pointed her scanner at Wu Fei. "Internal bleeding, Chang Wu Fei. Both of you are going to med level immediately."  
  
Heero's face was red with fury as he snarled at Wu Fei, "You should have stopped him!"  
  
Wu Fei lifted his head and returned Heero's glare. "He's fast. I was one step behind his whirlwind all through the course. I slipped on the third wall, and drove it into my gut, trying to at least snatch the idiot's braid. I knew what he was doing to himself! You didn't need to tell me, Yuy!"  
  
Heero gripped at his stomach and bent over, teeth gritted, but he didn't let the pain stop him from demanding, "Why would Duo do this? Why was he trying to prove himself?"  
  
"Ask him!" Wu Fei shouted. "He's not letting me into his heart anymore than he is you!"  
  
"Wrong!" Duo suddenly bit out. "You're both there and I'm the idiot, not Fei...." He just breathed for a few moments as Sally called for medics."I... I was afraid. I stuck my tail between my legs and wouldn't take an assignment because the guy did explosives. I had to... get my head out of my ass, prove to myself that I was still who I thought I was, because...that guy escaped. If we had been there..."  
  
Wu Fei hung his head, wincing. "I didn't want you to know. I knew that it would bother you."  
  
"Une called me to read me the riot act," Duo admitted, "And she was right. We should have been there. That guy wouldn't be out blowing people up if I hadn't decided to be chicken, to worry so much about my own skin... about failing again..."  
  
"You didn't fail," Heero argued. "It was a second bomb in a blind pocket. No one on Earth or in space would have seen it."  
  
Wu Fei thought of his own sense of blame, his own nightmares about that day that he refused to admit to; his sense that Heero could have saved Duo, and everyone else, if he had been there in his place.  
  
Duo lowered his arm. "I wanted to prove to myself that I was strong enough... to go out and get that guy. I'm not, though. " Both of his hands came up to cover his face. "I just put myself back out of commission and he's going to go and blow up what the fuck he likes."  
  
"No, he's not," Wu Fei ground out.  
  
Sally heard a tone in Wu Fei's voice that she knew well. She pointed a finger at him and said forcefully, "No! You are going to medical and then you are both going home. You are off duty, as of now, and you will remain so pending my approval of your status. We have other, qualified, agents looking for the bomber."  
  
"Woman," Wu Fei said in his most arrogant tone, "We will do as we please. For now, we please to go to medical and have ourselves examined."  
  
"And after that?" Sally demanded.  
  
Wu Fei looked at Heero, who was frowning but nodding, and then at Duo, who lowered his hands and looked suddenly hopeful. "We will see," Wu Fei replied and gave her nothing more than that despite her vehement demands.  
  
+  
  
"If you had lived fifteen years ago, You'd be dead now," Duo mimicked as he sat in the backseat of Heero's car and pecked at keys on his laptop.  
  
"Was that supposed to be Sally?" Wu Fei grumbled as he tried to get comfortable. "I was the one who was subjected to laser therapy and those damn nanobots. They itch. A man cannot itch on the inside of his body."  
  
"I had to breathe a putrid regenerative inhaler and prove to Sally that I wasn't going to rupture anything," Duo grumbled as he hurriedly made notes on a pilfered hospital pad with a pencil emblazoned with the hospital logo.  
  
"She was doing her job and doing it well, " Heero said from the front seat. "Neither of you would be walking, if she were incompetent."  
  
"I know you're worried, Heero," Duo said in a sympathetic tone, "but you have to admit that it was a bit much when she pre filled out toe tags for all of us."  
  
"And started to fill out death certificates...," Wu Fei grumbled.  
  
"Stealing her laptop wasn't?" Heero pointed out.  
  
"We needed it," Duo replied sheepishly.  
  
"And her pencils and prescription pad?" Heero pressed.  
  
"Well..." Duo chewed on the end of the pencil. "I like notes."  
  
"Her lunch?" Heero added with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"I like ham and cheese," Duo snickered, unrepentant.  
  
"And I like yogurt... especially the berry kind...," Wu Fei added in a smaller voice, looking guilty.  
  
"We need our strength, " Duo argued, but then grew serious. "Okay... here he is, Mr. Paul Kiljoi... Jeez! What a name for a bomber to have. Well, we're about to kill your joy, Paul, ready or not. Can someone tell me why Preventers doesn't know the guy likes his clothes dry cleaned?"  
  
"Is that where he is?" Heero asked.  
  
"No, not for at least an hour, but I'm sure I can hack into the dry cleaners and get his info," Duo replied.  
  
"It's probably false," Wu Fei pointed out.  
  
Duo glared at him and pulled one eye wide. "Duh, Fei. I'm not in kindergarten." He went back to his screen.   
  
"Could have fooled me," Fei said under his breath and finished his yogurt. He still felt weak and there was some residual pain, but the injuries had been minor and he was confident that he would be operational. Duo, he felt, he would need to watch. It would be like that man to once again, go beyond his abilities, especially when he thought that he had something to prove.  
  
"There..." Duo snickered.  
  
"What?" Heero asked sharply.  
  
"I don't think a sixteen year old girl is going to use her credit card to dry clean three suits, a pair of men's slacks, and a designer shirt," Duo replied in triumph.  
  
"Stolen card... good work," Wu Fei said as he put his empty container into a bag with Sally Po written on the side in pen. "Do we wait until he returns there?"  
  
"I think we ask the owner why he took a stolen card and put the fear of jail time on him," Duo suggested.  
  
"That would be my expertise," Heero said firmly. "I'll deal with that while you both continue to rest."  
  
"Here," Duo added stubbornly. "You are not taking us back to the apartment. We'll wait in the car."  
  
Heero sighed. "All right."  
  
"And stop by a fast food joint on the way," Duo told him. "That woman doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive."


	13. Cowboys

"This is it." Heero said as he sunk lower in the front seat.   
  
Both Wu Fei and Duo were down low in the back, staring at a very mundane warehouse in a row of them that ended at a cement wall covered in gang symbols and razor wire.   
  
"You know," Duo muttered, "If I were an insane terrorist, making bombs for the ultimate destruction of the Earth Sphere Alliance, I'd find a split level house, with a big garage, in a nice neighborhood.. The bad guys always think they're being clever with these ratty, on the edge of the slum, lean two's."   
  
"Clever enough," Wu Fei growled back. "They have an actual company as a front."   
  
Duo snorted back. "Wheelchairs? Why not air lock seals or carpeting?"   
  
"Regulations," Heero replied. "They'd need inspections and permits."   
  
They sat and watched the building, noting how many came and went, and then Wu Fei asked,"Plan, gentlemen?"   
  
"Buy a wheelchair?" Heero suggested. "It's possible he is only working for them."   
  
Hunched over his laptop, Duo snorted. "With these satellite readings? I've already downloaded the position and stats to headquarters. They think it's definitely a hot potato."   
  
Wu Fei started. "They know we're doing surveillance? What did they say?"   
  
Duo grinned. "I'm not sure, too much atmospheric interference. Someone there has a colorful vocabulary, though."   
  
"Which means they'll be down on this place as soon as they pick the team," Heero knew, but didn't seem upset by that fact. "We'll need the extra guns."   
  
Duo scowled. "We can take them, Heero."   
  
Heero replied, "Yes we can, but we don't have to alone, Duo."   
  
Duo was quiet and then he sighed. "I guess I just need to prove myself."   
  
"If you're dead, you wouldn't be able to enjoy it," Wu Fei pointed out. "It's much better to admire your laurels on the wall and in old age."   
  
"Well, when ever you ladies are ready then," Duo grumbled.   
  
Wu Fei checked their ammunition clips and extra weapons. He found himself asking, "Do you have your bomb kit, Duo?" He swore at himself in the next moment for being a fool.   
  
Duo gave him an angry look. "What do you think? I'm not going to chicken out, Fei."   
  
"I know that," Wu Fei assured him. "Forgive me. I..."   
  
"Worry about me," Duo finished and managed a grin, though it was a tight one. "I know. I worry about you too, but we can't let it mess us up. Do your jobs. I'll do mine."   
  
"Let's move out then," Heero said impatiently as he moved to open the car door. "Recon only."   
  
"Agreed," Wu Fei replied.   
  
Duo only grunted as if he didn't want to make any promises.   
  
They slipped through the shadows along the rusted sides of the warehouse, their nondescript clothing giving them some cover. If anyone noticed them, it was possible that they would just suppose that they worked at one of the other warehouses.   
  
"Window." Duo nodded upward and the others looked up at the narrow, clouded pane of glass. Wu Fei and Heero both eyed Duo's narrow body and his wider shoulders.   
  
Duo snorted and gave Heero a small punch on a shoulder. "I know, I know! I'm not the skinny kid from L2 anymore, but I can still squeeze myself into a soda can if I have to. Give me a leg up."   
  
Wu Fei took a firm hold on his braid. "Don't go in. Recon only. You may be able to monkey into that window, but we can't. If you get into trouble, the only way that we could rescue you is with a frontal assault."   
  
"Understood," Duo replied and pried his braid from Wu Fei's grip. "I just wanna look."   
  
"Do it," Heero ordered and easily lifted Duo up. Duo was able to grab the window ledge with his fingers and Wu Fei watched with amazed respect as Duo easily pulled himself up. The window swung inward and Duo squeezed halfway through it. He was back out and down almost at once.   
  
"We gotta get in there now," Duo told them anxiously as he took out his gun and checked the clip. "They have barrel bombs hooked with sequence charges. Just one is enough to blow a square mile."   
  
Wu Fei felt a chill run up his spine. "How many men?"   
  
"Our target gleefully seeing to the last minute timing," Duo replied, " and at least sixteen armed goons salivating over the coming boom boom."   
  
"Floor plan?" Heero demanded.   
  
"Upper storage lofts," Duo replied. " Lower middle bay for working under cargo carriers. Two white panel trucks to the left being loaded with coasters and bumpers for the bombs. Parts tables to the right. Back room, unknown."   
  
"Then there could be more men," Heero pointed out. "We need back up."   
  
"Common sense," Wu Fei agreed.   
  
"No time," Duo told them with a glitter in his eyes, adrenalin flooding his system and almost visibly tingling on his skin as he nodded to a side door. "Call in the troops, shoot off the lock, and charge. You guys keep them off my back and I'll make chop suey out of their sequencer system. We might survive."   
  
"Not likely," Wu Fei growled as he checked his guns, testing their balance and the muscles in his hands and wrists, and trying to ignore the voice that was telling him that it was happening again. It wasn't happening again, he argued with himself. This mission was clearly suicide. There wouldn't be a surprise this time.   
  
"Love you guys," Duo said gruffly, not looking at either of them.   
  
Heero grabbed him by the neck, pulled him in close, and then let him go. A hard clap landed on Wu Fei's shoulder. Wu Fei didn't trust his voice. He bowed deeply to them, his heart in his eyes, and then made sure of his grip on his guns again.   
  
"Don't let him fall, Yuy," Wu Fei couldn't help warning.   
  
"Together, we'll make sure he doesn't," Heero replied. "Stay to my right."   
  
Heero punched the code on his cell phone for immediate backup. Duo shot out the lock. The noise was deafening, announcing their presence. Wu Fei was first in, guns blazing.   
  
With their protection, Duo made it to the bombs, braid snapping back and forth as he dodged and ducked. Skidding to a halt on his knees, he unrolled his tools, and began dismantling the sequencer. Wu Fei and Heero both knocked drums and crates down as cover as they took up positions on each side of Duo and prepared to protect him with their lives.   
  
"Cover off!" Duo called and it clattered as he tossed it aside.   
  
"You're gonna die!" a voice shouted over the gunfire. "You're outnumbered!"   
  
"We are well aware of that!" Wu Fei shouted back as he fired in the direction of the voice.   
  
Bullets peppered a crate by Wu Fei's head and one shot past to hit the concrete at Duo's feet. He hissed in pain as chips splattered his right ankle, but his hands didn't falter as he continued to work.   
  
"No booby trap," Duo muttered. "Just straight wiring."   
  
Wu Fei heard tension draining from Duo's voice, his worst fear not realized.   
  
Heero grunted and his right arm went limp. He reloaded a clip in his gun with his teeth, and an impact on his shoulder, and kept firing. They didn't have much longer, Wu Fei knew. They were badly outgunned. He was surprised that they hadn't fallen already. He remembered the last mission, trying to cover the same situation with two guns, and wondered that he had felt so sure that Heero could have saved Duo. He smiled tightly at his own foolishness. One man couldn't have done it, not even Heero Yuy. Now, even though there were two of them, with all of their combined skill, they were most likely going to fail just as badly, except that this time they would all die rather than end up in the hospital.   
  
"Almost done!" Duo shouted at them. "Keep 'em off me guys!"   
  
Wu Fei felt a shot whiz past his head. He whirled in horror, knowing that Heero was just behind him, and saw the man stagger and go down.   
  
"Heero!" Wu Fei shouted and felt a fist squeeze his heart. Once again he was grabbing up another gun and trying to fire in both directions. Once again, he saw men boiling out of hiding, knowing that he couldn't shoot them all and willing to die for their cause.   
  
"Done!" Duo shouted and yanked wires violently to completely ruin the operating system of the bombs. He turned then and saw Heero. "Goddamit, Heero! " Duo cried out, his voice catching on a sob, and then he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Wu Fei and joining him in trying to simply stay alive.   
  
"Preventers!" The door burst open and agents poured in, firing as the men turned and began to try to repel the new attack.   
  
"Agent down!" Duo shouted over the noise and then he and Wu Fei crouched to see whether their lover was alive or dead.   
  
"Medic," a man warned and then he came scrambling over the debris with a case in hand. "Give me room, boys."   
  
Heero was pale, but breathing, blood oozing from a shoulder and arm wound. The man ripped open cloth and then packed the wounds with a stabilizer agent to stop the bleeding. He then checked Heero's vitals and grunted. "He'll make it. Ambulance is outside. Get him there without adding to the casualty list, okay?" and then he was gone back into the fighting.   
  
Wu Fei helped Duo lift Heero and carry him cautiously towards the door of the building. Duo managed a weak grin. "We did it."   
  
Wu Fei returned the smile. "Yes, we did."   
  
"We're one hell of a team," Duo said excitedly. "Chang, Yuy, and Maxwell. We're unbeatable."   
  
Duo was riding an adrenalin high, his cheeks flushed with it, but when they reached the ambulance and helped load Heero into it, the excitement of a victory turned to concern for Heero. They were forced to drive to the hospital in the car, following the ambulance, and Sally was there to meet them when they arrived. She glared as Heero was rolled into an operating room, but only said, "You owe me lunch and I want my laptop back." and then she went in to the do the surgery personally.   
  
Wu Fei and Duo settled on a bench in the waiting room, quiet and worried. Duo finally said, "We did everything right, didn't we?"   
  
Wu Fei gave him a look and then put an arm over Duo's shoulders and hugged him. "You know we did. Heero knows, as well. He'll be all right, Duo."   
  
"Maybe we should do something else for a living?" Duo said thoughtfully. "Give out parking tickets. Engine specialists. Trainers. Flower arrangers..."   
  
Wu Fei lifted a thin eyebrow. "Flowers?"   
  
Duo smirked. "Maybe not flowers."   
  
Wu Fei stared and then asked, "You're joking, right?"   
  
Duo sighed and slumped in his seat. "Yeah, I'm just..."   
  
"Tired. I know. It's all right," Wu Fei replied. He pulled Duo against his shoulder. "Rest. I'll keep watch."   
  
Duo smiled and let himself go. He was asleep and snoring within a minute and Wu Fei smiled lovingly down at him, not caring who saw them.   
  
\+   
  
"It's our turn to take care of you," Duo said sleepily into his pillow.   
  
"Yes, it's only fair," Wu Fei said as he shifted and then began to drift off to sleep again.   
  
At their center, a white sheet wrapped around all of them, Heero glared from one to the other of his lover's and observed sourly, "Unless you have learned to levitate..."   
  
"Fei?" Duo prodded.  
  
"Maxwell?" Wu Fei shot back. He turned to face Heero, reached over the bandaged man , and then shoved Duo out of bed. Duo fell to the floor, taking the sheet with him. "We were allowed to bring Heero home on the express promise that he would stay in bed."   
  
"Yeah, but we promised Sally," Duo groaned as he stood and hugged the sheet to his body, scowling at Wu Fei. "That doesn't count."   
  
"I gave my word," Wu Fei stressed. "Now, it's your turn. Fetch Heero his morning tea."   
  
"While you...?" Duo wondered sourly.   
  
Wu Fei looked pointedly at Heero's morning erection. "I have my own duties."   
  
"Hey!" Duo climbed back onto the bed. "You are not going to get all the good jobs!"   
  
"We all have our special talents," Wu Fei replied as he stroked Heero's erection with a firm hand.   
  
"And mine's making tea?" Duo shot back. "I don't think so."   
  
"I don't have to think. I know it is the truth," Wu Fei told him.   
  
Duo put his hand on Heero's erection as well. "I think we can let Heero be the judge of that, Chang!"   
  
They both looked up Heero's body. He blinked at them and then said carefully, in a strained voice, "You both have special talents. It would be hard to compare them without numerous examples."   
  
Duo snickered and then looked at Wu Fei. "Think he's up for it?"   
  
Wu Fei laughed. "I think we're holding the proof."   
  
"Let's forget the contest," Duo suggested with a gleam in his eyes. "Teamwork is what we're best at."   
  
"Agreed," Wu Fei replied with a warm smile.   
  
Heero put a hand on Wu Fei and Duo's heads as they both bent to give him pleasure. He moaned and then sighed in contentment. "Perfect."  
  
End


End file.
